Personas and Wizards
by Arawn D. Draven
Summary: What if after a car accident, Harry found himself in a small Japanese town known as Inaba, and was found by Dojima Ryotaro, several years before the events of Persona 4? How would that change the events in Persona 4? And what would happen if a Persona-wielding Harry Potter was summoned to participate in the Triwizard Tournament?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, it's me again! Yes, I know most of you would like to read the next chapter of The Bloody Ashikabi, but I've been working on this for a while, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit more, sorry.**

**This was supposed to be a one-shot, but I didn't think it would be fair, as both Harry Potter and Persona 4 have awesome stories, so I made it a two-shot. I'm not entirely satisfied with how it came out, but considering that I've been deleting and re-writing parts of it for almost a week, I don't think I would be able to better right now, so I hope it will be good enough for you guys!**

**So, this was a challenge by Elemental Phoenix, I hope you'll like the results!**

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**I don't own Harry Potter or Persona 4, only this plot.**

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**Personas and Wizards: Part 1**

Ryotaro Dojima had seen many things during his life, some of them good, but most of them bad, such was the burden of being a detective, he guessed. However, he had long ago learnt to deal with the emotions that came from witnessing humanity at its' worst, otherwise he might have snapped at some poor, unsuspecting fool about something trivial, like shoplifting. That did not mean he didn't care about the victims he had come across, he simply needed to be able to keep his cool and think rationally to treat his cases.

Now, though, he was finding it exceedingly hard to keep his cool, stressed by how white his knuckles were as his hands balled into fists. On the other side of the wall was a child, a foreigner boy with raven hair, deep green eyes, who was currently the reason of his anger, or, more accurately, his anger came from how mistreated the boy had been.

Forcing himself to calm down, he remembered the beginning on his night..

_**Flashback start**_

_He had been walking home after his shift, enjoying the cool breeze of the summer night. He had spent a relatively easy day, as most of his days since his arrival to Inaba had been. For someone as stressed as he was, it was a breath of fresh air after the usual hectic days of working as a detective in the city._

_As he walked, he thought about his wife, Chisato Dojima. Now that they were both set and that he had more time to dedicate to his family, he thought it may be time to have children. Before, he was way too busy to even think about adding a member to the Dojima household, and Chisato had agreed with him that they'd wait until he had a job allowing him more time with his family. Now though, they really had no reason to stop themselves from having a child, and he was sure that his wife would be deliriously happy once she had a baby. He smiled, knowing that she would be a great mother, and chuckled at the thought of her playing with their future son/daughter._

_However, his good mood was snuffed when he heard a whimper coming from an alley to his left. Stray dogs were rare, even here in the countryside, but they were a danger for everyone, as a famished dog could easily attack humans, and could very well kill a child. Fortunately, it had never happened until now, but that was mainly because all strays were killed on sight. If this was indeed a stray, it was his duty as a cop to ensure it was put down for the safety of the townsfolk._

_Reaching for his gun, he carefully walked into the alley, letting his eyes grow used to the low light. What he found made his stomach clench painfully. The whimper came from a child covered in blood, who was going through the rubbish, despite an obviously broken arm dangling uselessly at his side. Lowering his gun, he reached for the child, but before he could touch him or her, his foot accidentally kicked a stray can, causing it to make a metallic sound as it flew into the wall._

_He was startled when the child backpedalled frantically, trying to put as much distance between the sound and himself(or herself), but tripped and fell, before laying down unmoving, apparently out cold . Running to the child's side, he found himself staring to a young foreigner boy, probably five or six at best. Shaking his head to clear his head from the anger he felt stirring at the sight of one so young forced to go through the rubbish, he carefully lifted up the boy, feeling yet another pang of anger at how light he weighed, before starting to run towards the station he had just left._

_**Flashback end**_

That had been several hours ago. He had called the hospital, and they had asked him to bring the still unconscious child there. What they had found had shocked them. Despite the lack of time, they had performed a few tests and found the child to be starved and lacking quite a bit of exposure to the sun, something young children usually showed in spades as they spent much time outside. The wounds though, those were surprising to say the least. The boy seemed to not only have an arm clearly broken, but he also had slight internal bruising, as well as a mild concussion. It was actually a miracle he could still move around when the detective found him, since he was probably running on his last reserves of energy to find some food.

Then the boy had awoken, and his reaction had once again broken the heart of the people that were present: he had tried to scurry as far away from the adults as he could, all the wall blabbering in a foreign language that one of the doctors had identified as English. Luckily, said doctor had spent some time studying abroad, and had a good enough grasp on English to ask him the questions the detective asked him to translate.

What they had gathered was that the boy's name was Harry Potter, or Potter Harry since Japanese people tended to introduce themselves with their family names first. He was actually seven, and he lived with his aunt and uncle, since from what he had been told his parents were drunks that died in a car accident. When asked about his wounds, he had said that he was in the car with his Uncle when the man had lost control of the vehicle, and that they had had a car accident. He said that he had then woken up in Inaba, with no memories of how he had gotten there from England.

After that interrogation, they had brought him a meal and Dojima Ryotaro had excused himself and left the room, talking with the doctor and gathering information. It was clear to him that his family hadn't been treating the boy right, however he wanted to know how bad it had actually been.

The doctor, a woman in her fifties, sighed and explained:

"_It's difficult to say. Most of the wounds he had, the broken arm, the concussion and the internal bruising don't seem to come from abuse, more from what I'd expect from a car accident like he described, however there hasn't been any patients brought in here after that type of accident in quite a while. However, there are at least seven bruises that seem to come from a fist on his body, and the arm that wasn't broken showed a bruise that could very well be created by someone holding it too strongly._

_We can at least assume those people starved him, as his body shows signs of continued malnutrition for an period of time that spans at least the five last years, and by the way he talked it seems as if he has been living with those people until recently. There is also the fact that he seems frightful of an adult's contact, something that is definitively not normal for a child as young_."

He sighed, it looked like he would not be spending easy days for the foreseeable future.

**-Break-**

Harry gulped and tugged at the collar of his shirt. He was supposed to meet the detective's wife today, since apparently she had suggested he was placed in their care as nobody had managed to track down his relatives. However, now that it was indeed the day to meet her, he was getting increasingly nervous. What if she saw he was a freak? What if she didn't want to take him in?

The detective, Dojima if he had understood right, was a nice person, if a little scary, a novelty for him. Usually adults didn't like him much, so he did his best to go unnoticed. However in this case he was pretty much the center of attention, something he disliked greatly as usually it would mean the Dursleys would get mad at him later and send him to his cupboard without dinner. He liked the man, he tried to joke with him even with what little English he managed to get right, and he had brought him a few books when he had learnt that Harry liked reading. Needless to say, he was surprised when the raven-haired boy had thanked him profusely with teary eyes, saying that nobody had ever given him anything before.

He had begun learning Japanese in the week he had stayed at the hospital, and he found the language oddly soothing. Maybe it was because whenever he had heard English it was mostly the angry tirades of his Uncle or the shrieks of his Aunt, but he found himself liking Japanese more than his native language. He had learnt the basics, how to greet someone and thank them, however he was still lost when it came to the suffixes Japanese people used to show their relationships. Apparently calling someone their name with _-chan_ at the end, was a way to talk to children or really close female friends, while using _-san_ was for people you didn't know all that well, like a casual acquaintance. When he had told the kind lady doctor, she had smiled and told him it would take him a while to learn, since it was one of the things that couldn't be translated to English.

He was currently sitting in the hospital's cafeteria, since the medical staff wanted to keep him at the hospital until they were certain his wounds were fine and that he had gotten some meat on his bones. He had actually eaten more in the last week that he remembered doing in an entire month at the Dursleys, though they had been careful to give him too much food, saying that it would be bad for his body.

"Harry-chan?" asked a female voice, causing him to jump in his seat, before a feminine hand caught him and righted him.

Turning around, he came face-to-face with a woman in her early thirties, with mid-long, brown hair and a rather pretty face. Her eyes shone with something he couldn't place, but he could see she was apologetic for surprising him. Behind her stood the detective Dojima, who looked a bit nervous, something he was surprised to see as the man was usually very composed and self-assured.

"Harry, this is Chisato, my wife." said the man, though he had a very thick accent, making it hard to piece his words together. Hell, "wife" came out as "waifu", so it wasn't as if it was easily understandable!

"Hello, Harry-chan. I'm Chisato." said the woman, with far less difficulty than her husband, much to his surprise.

With a smile, she explained:

"I had a few foreign friends when I was younger, so they taught me English. Now, Harry-chan, what do you want to do?"

**-Break-**

Ryotaro Dojima smiled as he watched his wife walk with Harry's hand in hers. It was obvious she was taken with him, even if he didn't understand half of what was said, he only needed to see the huge smile on Chisato's face to know that if the boy was okay with it, then he would be in their care soon.

The fact that Harry seemed to think the year was 1987 was strange, sure, but he wouldn't put it past his relatives to have lied to him simply to make him look like an idiot. It was pretty obvious they had hated him, which begged the following question: Why had they taken him in? Was there nobody else to take care of him? And if so, then why not simply dump him at an orphanage instead of taking him in if they hated him that much?

The sound of laughter shook him from his grim thoughts, and he forced himself to think about something else. All that mattered now was that the kid was happy.

**-Break-**

Harry blinked, unsure if he was seeing correctly. He had his own bedroom? Seeing his confusion, Chisato explained:

"It's your room, Harry. For now it's like this, but we'll go shopping to get a few things for you later."

Fidgeting, he explained:

"No, it's just, well, it's very different from my cupboard."

He gulped when seeing Chisato narrow her eyes angrily. Did he say something wrong? Freaks were supposed to live in cupboards, his Uncle had told him so, so why was she angry?

"Harry, what do you mean by, "my cupboard"?"

He could feel the anger in her voice, and he instantly reacted the way he usually did to any threat to his safety: he scurried as far away from the angry person as he could, and hid behind the table, trembling. He didn't like it when people were angry, they always ended up hurting him. Dudley punched him, his Uncle hit him or shook him, and his Aunt hurt him. Was Chisato going to hit him too? She had seemed so nice...

"Harry..." said her voice from in front of him, causing his shaking to cease as he heard the soothing tone.

Looking up, he saw her looking sad and ashamed, just before he felt her hug him. He tensed slightly, before relaxing when he felt that she meant him no harm, though he did not return the hug, since the one time he had tried to hug his Aunty, she had pushed him away as if he was diseased and told him that if he were to try again, she would tell Vernon to put a lock on his cupboard.

After a while hugging him, she put her hands on his shoulder, and looked at him with a pleading expression:

"Harry, please, tell me. What did you mean when you said "my cupboard"?"

She looked like she desperately wanted to know, so he told her. Told her about the cupboard under the stairs, about how he was not given his own clothing but Dudley's hand-me-downs, how he did every and all chores in the house while his Aunt bragged about how good a cook she was, how nobody had ever wanted to believe him when he told them about his treatment at the Dursleys'. He spent the better part of an hour simply explaining how his life had been, despite the fact that nobody had ever believed him.

When he finished, he was crying, and he was being hugged by a crying Chisato, who was trying to soothe him, and easily succeeding. It wasn't that hard, since nobody had ever been kind to him before, since he had been mostly been treated like dirt. So he cried, and yet he rejoiced in knowing he had found what he had always craved for: a family, one that would love him.

**-Break-**

Ryotaro sat on the couch, nursing a glass of beer in his hand, while his other arm was around his wife's waist as she leant on him while they watched the news.

"_Darling?"_

_"Hhhhmm?"_

_"If you ever find those people...Make sure they __**pay**__ for what they did to Harry."_

He nodded. He had heard the boy's story. Whoever treated a child that badly deserved everything they got.

**-Break-**

**-Persona 4 Universe: 2003-**

"_Adoption?"_ asked a confused Harry.

He was sitting in the living room of the Dojimas' house, with Ryotaro and Chisato sitting in front of him. He had been living with them for two years already, and he had changed much from the tiny, skeletal boy that Ryotaro had found looking for food. Healthy food and proper exercise had allowed him to fill out, and he was no longer as shy as before. He _was_ still quite the loner, but he was no longer afraid of his shadow anymore. Surprisingly, Chisato had told him he should let his hair grow longer, despite the fact that it was supposedly not allowed by most schools' rules, though after an angry Chisato had told them in no uncertain terms that he was free to wear his hair how he wanted, he had been made an exception.

He had also begun learning a bit of self-defense, as bullying, while far less common than at his old school, still happened, especially since he was a foreigner and wore his hair long, making many a boy call him a girl and want to show he was weak. He was by no means an expert, but he didn't need to, as no other kids knew how to defend themselves, save for a girl called Satonaka Chie, who loved action movies and kicked the butt of those that annoyed her, but was by no means a bully herself.

He was also now proficient in Japanese, as he was always quick on the uptake, and living surrounded by people speaking a language was more than enough for him to learn it quickly. He had had more trouble with the written aspect of it, and even now he still made mistakes, but he was almost as good as the other children, and was making steady progress.

His guardians had been very good to him, Chisato doing a great job as a mother, while Ryotaro did his best to raise him as a father figure. Sure, the man was still very awkward, but he tried his best, and Harry appreciated that, since it was a far cry from the only other person who should have been a father figure to him, Vernon Dursley.

"_Yes, we've discussed this together, and since the police can't seem to find any living relatives, we thought about adopting you. Of course, that is if you agree."_

Agree? Hell, if it was him, he'd be doing the necessary papers himself! Of course he agreed!

When he told the Dojimas as much, they smiled and gave him a hug. It felt good to have family.

"_So, Harry, want to keep your name, or change?"_ asked a smiling Chisato.

**-Break-**

**-Persona 4 Universe: 2004-**

Harry, now Kazuya Dojima, smiled as he watched Chisato laying on her hospital bed with her baby, his _little sister_ in her arms. She looked pretty tired, then again he supposed she had every right to be, childbirth was probably quite tiring.

"_Kazuya, do you want to hold her?"_ asked his mother, seeing him looking at the baby intently.

Tentatively, he lifted his little sister from his mother's arms, and awkwardly held her to his chest. Looking up to him with huge, brown eyes, little Nanako giggled and tried to catch some of his hair, which now reached to his shoulders. Smiling, he used the arm not cradling the baby to his chest to play with her, causing his little sister to giggle even louder and try to catch his fingers.

Ryotaro and Chisato just smiled at the sight, both happy to see that their family was getting larger and that their children seemed to get along so well.

**-Break-**

**-Persona 4 Universe: 2005-**

The glass shattered as it hit the ground, causing Kazuya to look at his father questioningly, before paling, as he saw the man's face become positively livid, something he had never seen, and which he took as a sign that something bad had happened. And seeing as Nanako was napping, that left only one possibility: something had happened to his mother.

"_Dad?"_ he tentatively asked, seeing as the older man was still frozen on the spot.

Jumping and turning to look at his adoptive son, Ryotaro made the universal sign signifying he wanted him to be quiet, before turning back as he listened to his interlocutor, before finally barking:

"_I'll be here in ten minutes!"_

He then rushed past Kazuya, grabbing his coat, before pausing at the door of the Dojima residence and turning to look at the black-haired teen.

"_Kazuya, Chisato was hit by a car, she's at the hospital right now."_

Hearing those words, Kazuya felt as if the world had frozen. He heard his heart beating frantically in his chest, and the sounds surrounding him became muffled. His mother had been hit by a car? How could that be?

"_Kazuya? Right now I'm going to the hospital, but I need you to stay here to take care of Nanako."_

He wanted to shout that they could take her with them, that he wanted to come too, that he had the right to see his mother, but he knew better. He knew his father was frantic with worry right now, that he didn't need to worry about his daughter and adoptive son, so he squashed those feelings, he stopped himself from crying or acting like a child. Now was not the time for that. So he ignored the pain in his chest as he nodded, not trusting his words.

He could see that his father was relieved, and so he watched Ryotaro Dojima leave, hoping that he would come back with good news.

The next day, Chisato Dojima passed away from her injuries.

**-Break-**

Kazuya sat, refusing to talk to anyone as he played with Nanako, the little girl still too young to understand that she would never see her mother again. They had just come back from the funeral service, and he was still dressed in a black suit, something that rather suited his mood. Neither his father nor himself had taken the death of Chisato well, but Ryotaro, while looking completely lost, still had his job to think about and could not brood constantly, which was all what he himself did.

Since his mother's death, he had barely spoken, and most of the time it had been monosyllabic, as his already antisocial nature had made him shy away from the attention, the comforting words that he knew to be false. Oh, a few people had genuinely been nice, but most of those he had seen had cared little about the fact that his mother had died. Right now his mood was somber, Chisato's death seemed to have made some extremely unpleasant memories resurface, and seeing as he didn't intend to burden his father, nor did he have friends to talk about it, he was left to his own devices.

During these silent hours spent playing with his little sister, he made a vow to himself. No longer would he be weak. No longer would he allow those dear to him suffer. He would become strong. He would become someone who could be relied on. He would protect Nanako, and even if his father didn't know about it, he would protect him too.

**-Break-**

**-Persona 4 Universe: 2008-**

Kazuya scowled as he saw that his father had once again left a message saying that he wouldn't be able to eat with them. He knew he had taken Chisato's death very hard, but since then he had been trying to forget by working himself to the bone, trying to find who had hit his wife and then fled the scene. He could understand that it was his way to grieve, however if there was one thing he couldn't forgive his father for, it was the way he was treating Nanako. He himself felt he was old enough to care for himself, however if he hadn't been there his little sister would have been the one doing most of the chores, or at least trying to, despite the fact she was only four.

He had tried to tell his father that continuing as he was going was bad, that it would not do his health any good, and that Nanako needed him, but the man was stubborn like a mule and didn't listen. He was there, he said, and it was the role of an older brother to take care of his younger sister. Of course, he did so, and he liked to take care of her, who wouldn't? That didn't mean that the little girl didn't need her father, nor that said father could ignore his family and focus on his job.

He also cursed the fact that he was too young for a part-time job, he wanted to get himself some money, since he planned to take care of Nanako in ways their father apparently couldn't. He knew that the man had completely forgotten about the fact that his daughter would someday need some money for university, and that as a cop, his income, while enough to let them live comfortably, would not be enough if she intended to go to the best universities of the area, let alone Tokyo. There was also the fact that he wanted to be ready in case of anything happening to his father. He knew Inaba was hardly dangerous, but his mother had been hit by a car, who knew what would happen next?

His social life was almost inexistent, as he was already quite the loner, and the time he spent taking care of Nanako further diminished any chances he had of making friends, then again he didn't really care. He had enough experience with people to be wary of any kind of bonds, he didn't trust people, hardly a surprise considering what he remembered from his days before his parents took him in. Even after that he had been bullied quite a lot, being a foreigner in the Japanese countryside made him stand out, and his solitary nature didn't help his cause among the other students.

The only people he could stand, and barely, were the daughter of the owner of the Amagi Inn, Amagi Yukiko, a rather shy girl, and her best friend, Satonaka Chie, who were a year older than him but were at least cordial whenever they met each other, more than what could be said from most people their age. There was also Tatsumi Kanji, a boy that looked a couple years older than he really was, and already dwarfed his classmates by his tall stature. Yet despite his rather brash exterior, Kazuya knew he was actually a very nice boy, who had actually told him about the fact he liked sewing, something he had asked the taller boy to teach him, much to said boy's pleasure.

Looking at the sleeping Nanako, he smiled, before going to the kitchen. His father would need some food to take with him for the next day.

**-Break-**

**-Persona 4 Universe: 2011-**

Kazuya watched as his cousin approached. From what he could tell, Narukami Yu was quite tall, even if he was still probably taller, the Caucasian male body being usually taller than the Asian one. His cousin had grey hair, and despite what most people would think, it was no dye, but his natural hair color.

He smiled as he felt Nanako clutch his pants tightly, she was not usually this shy around him, but he guessed that meeting her older cousin could be quite scary for her. It would do everyone some good to have someone else live with them for a while. Who knew? Maybe his cousin would be able to change what he couldn't?

**-Break-**

Kazuya was waiting for his father when he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw the smiling face of the rather effeminate employee of the gas station looking at him. He shuddered, there was definitively something off about the man.

"_I bid thee good luck, Chosen One."_ was all he said.

The next thing Kazuya knew, he was back in the car, staring vacantly out of the window to the countryside. However, as they went home, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong in the peaceful town of Inaba.

**-Break-**

Kazuya watched as his cousin chatted amiably with Satanaka Chie, Amagi Yukiko and Hanamura Yosuke. It had been barely a month since the grey-haired teen had arrived in Inaba, and he had already started making friends, _very good_ friends, considering that the four of them were almost always together now. Most people found it a bit strange, but didn't seem to care overly much.

However, he knew better. He didn't know exactly _what_ had happened, but he had seen them sneak out with weapons, however he always lost them at Junes. It was like they vanished around the electronics area or something similar. There was also the fact that somehow, there was a _blue door_, of all things, in the middle of the street, yet nobody seemed to notice it, save, again, for his cousin. He had not yet dared open it, as he didn't know where it lead, and he didn't want to risk leaving Nanako alone.

There was also these weird deaths, with people disappearing but then reappearing days later hung to antennas, their bodies sprawled as if they had been put there by someone trying to make them look as sinister as possible. He had taken to carry a kendo stick with him, something nobody bothered him for, as it was well-known that he trained to keep in shape. He also made sure that Nanako was the least possible alone at home, as he didn't think a crazy serial killer would be overly concerned by a break and entering added to his/her case.

Seeing his cousin and his friends waving at him, he gave them a polite nod before leaving, as he didn't want to be late for his job. He knew his cousin cared about Nanako too, so he wasn't too worried about her for tonight.

**-Break-**

Okay, now that was getting ridiculous. Now the little group had _four_ people, plus his cousin? Two of which had been reported missing for a while before mysteriously coming back? Hell, Kanji seemed to be integrating fairly well in their little group, and was the only one of them, outside of his cousin, who talked to him for more than a few words.

He had also heard his cousin talking about the Midnight Channel, he knew about the rumor of course and found it stupid to believe you'd find your other half with something like that. However, he _had_ tried to watch it, and he had discovered, or at least greatly suspected that it in fact showed the people who were going to go missing, as he had seen Kanji on it hours before he was reported missing. Unlike most people, he was _not_ stupid, and was easily able to deduce that his cousin was somehow linked to the strange happenings in Inaba. There was something going on, and he was going to find out what, before anything happened to his little sister because of his cousin getting involved in things that were probably better left alone.

As he pondered what he could do, he decided to have faith in his luck and open that blue door he had seen his cousin enter regularly as of late. Maybe then he'd be able to get some answers.

**-Break-**

"_Welcome...to the Velvet Room."_

Okay, now this wasn't strange, it was downright impossible. Sure, a blue door floating in the middle of a shopping district and yet unnoticed by anyone but his cousin and himself didn't exactly scream "normal" to him, but he certainly hadn't expected to find himself sitting in a limo, facing a blonde woman entirely clad in blue, and a creepy old man with the longest nose he had ever seen.

"_Oh? It appears that you are not our usual guest, how very intriguing."_ drawled the man, his voice sending shivers down his spine.

"_Allow me to introduce myself, I am Margaret, and this is my master, Igor."_ said the woman, giving him a polite nod, which he returned, too stunned to think of anything else to do. "_It is the first time that we have more than one guest, yet it appears that you are not in need of the services we usually provide."_

Now he was getting more and more confused. Who were these people? What "services" did they provide, and to whom? His cousin?

"_It seems that you do not understand. Allow me to elaborate: you, dear, are in need of tutelage. You need to master your powers, before they harm those you hold dear. As such, I shall endeavor to teach you the intricacies of your power."_

The next thing he knew was the sensation of falling, before he landed on what appeared to be a blue platform. At a respectable distance of him stood Margaret, not one hair out of place, however despite her composed façade, he was almost certain she was quite eager for whatever was coming.

"_Let us begin."_

**-Break-**

He groaned as he let the hot water soothe his body. Despite not having a single injury after the "training", Margaret had made him go through, he was sore all over, and could barely stand, his whole body feeling as if it was made of lead. He didn't know how much time he had spent in that "Velvet Room", but he sincerely doubted time went at the same pace there and in the real world. After all, he had spent what felt like days battling against the blonde woman, who told him about the fact that unlike any other "guest" she or Igor had seen, he actually had the ability to use supernatural powers without needing a "Persona".

In the end, he hadn't understood everything, but he had managed to learn how to use what seemed to be magic, though Margaret had pointed out that it was still a far cry from what it could be if he kept training. And surprisingly, he intended to. He had still no clue about what was happening in Inaba, but at least he had understood that it was supernatural in nature, and that normal means would never be enough to solve it.

_Anything to protect those I care for_.

**-Break-**

_An idol, now?_

Really? The group had gotten yet another member, this time none other than Kujikawa Rise, the former idol "Risette". Who was next? The Detective Prince? He had seen the young woman around the town quite a lot recently, and it seemed that she too, had come to the conclusion that his cousin was somehow involved. He would have to approach her discreetly, as it was quite clear that most believed her to be a man, even if he had seen through her disguise. Then again, for some reason her behavior seemed forced, he could easily tell, as he too was quite good when it came to hiding his true self.

He watched as the former idol clung to his cousin, she was quite clearly enamored with him, and he was happy to see that his cousin seemed to respond favorably to her little attentions and clingy behavior. He loved to see how people interacted, it was quite interesting and told quite a lot about them. He could tell that in the little group, there were already a few people attracted to each other, though not all of them seemed to know about it themselves. The way Chie always argued with Yosuke Hanamura, the "Prince of Junes", made it clear that they were quite close, like an old couple. Yukiko seemed attracted to his cousin, but since he was already more or less taken with Rise, she seemed to be growing close to Kanji, as both had known each other since they were kids.

However, there was something that disturbed him in the way they interacted together, they had gotten too close too fast. While people could grow close, it was a gradual process, something that took months, even years to happen, yet here that group acted as if they had been best friends for years, not the mere months they had known each other.

He would have to ask the Detective Prince if she had any idea about that.

**-Break-**

Shirogane Naoto was known as the Detective Prince for a reason, few cases had ever been a challenge to her. However, she was forced to disguise herself as a male, as she knew that in a male-dominant universe like the police force, nobody would ever listen to a female detective, even if said female was better at solving cases than most males. That is why she wore men's clothes, used male pronouns to refer to herself, and did her best to behave like a man, without of course going overboard.

However, ever since she had come to Inaba, she had been forced to admit that this case was the hardest one she had ever come across, and she had delved in with delectation, since true challenges to her intellect were so rare.

She had naturally investigated the happenings herself, and had come to suspect the group following Narukami Yu fairly quickly. Their behavior was suspicious, and three of the people who had been reported missing, before mysteriously reappearing, belonged to it, which was more than enough to paint a red flag on it. She was also surprised to see a teenage foreigner stalking the group, it seemed that she was not the only one to be suspicious. It hadn't been hard to find who this foreigner was, apparently he was well-known at the police station for being Detective Dojima's adopted son. From what she had gathered, he was a loner, though he did have a reputation of a polite young man who helped those he could, and who took care of his younger sister in place of his father.

She had wanted to ask the young man about the reason why he was following the group, as he may know things she didn't, but she had be surprised when he had been the one to request a meeting with her. Surprisingly, he had chosen a rather secluded area, when she had expected him to chose somewhere in the shopping district.

As she watched him approach, she studied him. He was tall for one of his age, then again with the Caucasian body type, it was to be expected. He was undoubtedly trained in some form of Martial Arts, as his way of walking was graceful and wasted no movements, and his body seemed to be almost devoid of any kind of fat. He had surprisingly long, black hair, as wearing your hair long as a male was frowned upon in most schools, but the most striking of his features were his deep green eyes. She could see intelligence there, and she had no doubt that while she was analyzing him, he was analyzing her. A small part of her wondered if he would see through her disguise, but she personally didn't think so, as even trained policemen had been fooled.

"_Dojima-san."_ she said, giving a small nod of acknowledgement.

"_Shirogane-san."_ he answered, giving a small nod in return.

"_May I know why you requested to meet me?"_ she inquired. She had to admit, she was curious about that, his request had not been like most of her admirers, it had been short and to the point, showing that he had something he wanted to tell her, and that he was not merely asking for an autograph.

"_May I know why you accepted to meet me, then? I'm quite sure that you are busy with the murder cases."_ he shot back, and she had to fight back a smile. It seemed that he was indeed intelligent, but two could play that game.

"_Your request intrigued me, you said you might have information about the case. If so, why not take it to the police?"_

He gave a small laugh, though she could tell something was _wrong_ with it. It sounded a bit too forced to be genuine.

"_And that's the question, right? The truth is, I have reasons to believe the police would not believe me, and I'd rather avoid getting ridiculed. I presume it is the same reasons that drove you to disguise yourself as a man?"_

Her surprise must have shown on her face, as he raised a hand, demanding her to be silent.

"_I couldn't care less about _why_ you want people to believe you are a man, as you must have you own reasons for that. I merely wanted to show you that unlike most of the people in this town, I am not unobservant. Think of it as a gesture of good will, I will not keep secrets from you, but I would like that you do the same for me, so long as it does not endanger the investigation. Do you accept these conditions?"_

That...she could work with that. He was being surprisingly forthcoming, truth to be told. She had expected demands, maybe the right to access the cases' information, but apparently she had been wrong.

"_I accept."_

The small smile he gave her was genuine, and he started to explain.

**-Break-**

Had it been anyone else, she would have asked for them to be given the help they obviously needed, and at one point she had thought about calling an ambulance, for this young man clearly needed help. Her skepticism was however replaced by clear shock when he demonstrated his "magic". It wasn't everyday that one was treated to the sight of someone creating fireballs, lightning, ice, and tornados on their own.

Some people would have gotten drunk on that kind of power, especially when he explained that he was still learning about his powers in what he called the "Velvet Room". If he was able of so much and was still learning, he would be a truly fearsome foe once he had truly mastered his powers. When she told him so, he seemed a little sheepish.

"_I do not have much I want, Shirogane-san. Truth be told, so long as those I care for are safe and sound, there is little more I would want."_

She smiled. Maybe this town would prove to be more interesting that she originally thought.

**-Break-**

"_I heard that you've been spending a lot of time with that boy, Shirogane."_

It was dinner time, and for once all four of them were home, his father, his cousin, his sister and himself. His cousin merely quirked an eyebrow, though he could tell that he was filing away the information for later use. Nanako simply looked happy for him, as she had always pushed him to make friends, despite him telling her that he was fine with her being his only friend, and his father was looking at him seriously.

"_So?"_ he asked, after all it wasn't as if he was distracting her. Their meetings were more often than not about the case, though they also had begun sharing a bit of their life stories lately. Apparently they were growing close, nothing more than friends, but good friends nonetheless. He could tell that his presence seemed to help the young woman relax, as she was constantly pressured by everybody, the media because she was famous and thus they wanted to have interviews with "him", and the police because they were waiting for the slightest mistake to push her aside. Being able to be herself around him seemed to help her ease that pressure, and he was glad to help her.

"_I'd rather not have you associating with him, it's already bad that we need help from a kid, if the media learn that my son is spending time with the Detective Prince, they'll be on your back in no time."_ groaned his father, as he finished his sushi.

"_ Sorry, but Shirogane-san asked for my help, since he feels that having someone around his age to ask around would be better than asking himself. People are less likely to suspect me, since I've been living here for years."_

Of course, the fact that he was a foreigner made him the black sheep of the community, but he didn't voice that. Neither his father, nor his sister needed to know that several people had started rumors about him being the culprit, since it was "obvious" foreigners were good-for-nothing people. He didn't really care, he was used to worse, but that didn't mean he appreciated it either.

He could see that his cousin was listening intently, and he was sure that soon his little group of friends would be aware of the fact that they were spied on. He doubted the grey-haired teen was aware that both himself and the Detective Prince(ss) knew that the case had supernatural aspects. He would have to be careful, since he doubted Yu was the culprit. If anything, he suspected his cousin to be the one rescuing those that went missing, the question was: where were these people taken? And by who?

**-Break-**

He awoke groggily, his head throbbing as a massive headache made itself known. He remembered opening the door after someone knocked, and then nothing. Carefully sitting up, he groaned as he felt his head pounding, but managed to stand up without too much difficulties. He was wearing his casual clothing, black jeans with a black turtleneck, even though his family had repeatedly told him that doing so made him look quite gloomy.

_**"Oh? So the Freak is waking up?"**_ mocked an all-too-familiar voice.

Turning around, he came face to face with a carbon copy of himself. Said copy was wearing what appeared to be a cross between a military uniform and combat gear, almost entirely black, save for a few silver trimmings here and there. It was also identical, save for its eyes, to him. Instead of the emerald eyes he had, his copy had glowing yellow eyes, giving it an unnatural look.

Getting into a fighting stance, he kept his eyes on whatever was looking like him. He didn't know where he was, but he was quite sure that whatever was in front of him did not have the best intentions towards him.

_"Who are you?"_ he growled. He did not like the idea of having a clone of himself walking around, not only did he feel violated at the thought, it was incredibly dangerous for those who knew him.

The _thing_ in front of him simply grinned, before giving him an exaggerated and mocking bow.

_"__**Allow me to introduce myself: I am You."**_

**-Break-**

Yu looked at his friends as they stood outside the castle where his cousin was currently detained. All of them had been eager to help him, as while most of them save Kanji hadn't been very close to Kazuya, they knew he was nice young man, if very solitary. They had also seen the state his family was in after his disappearance, Dojima had barely slept since the beginning of the week, and Nanako, despite the brave face she put on, cried herself to sleep every night.

"_Senpai? There's something wrong."_ called Rise, her face rapidly paling. "_ The Shadows inside this place...I've never sensed anything like them."_

As if those words were some kind of trigger, a silhouette walked out of the castle. It was a Caucasian teen, with a handsome face and dark hair, and his whole body language spoke of confidence bordering on arrogance. However, his most distinguishable feature were the glowing yellow eyes looking their way.

"_**Greetings. I suppose you are here to rescue Potter?"**_drawled the figure, in perfect Japanese.

"_Potter? Dojima-kun isn't the one in the castle?"_ asked Yukiko, confused.

She was not the only one, all members of the group were perplexed. They had come, expecting to save Kazuya from his Shadow, but the events currently unfolding were nothing like what they had expected.

The figure merely gave a derisive snort.

"_**Pathetic. You aren't even able to understand that "Kazuya", as you call him, is merely his adopted name. Pathetic Muggles."**_

They then had to jump to the side to avoid getting blasted by a torrent of fire.

"_What the Hell?! Senpai, what's going on?! This isn't Kazuya's Shadow!"_ shouted Kanji, narrowly avoiding burnt to death.

_"__**Indeed, I am not. His Shadow should currently be having a nice chat with him, and I cannot allow you to disturb them. Potter will die, either by his own hand or mine."**_

The group focused at that. They would not allow anyone to die, not when they could help it.

"_Persona!"_

**-Break-**

Yu couldn't believe his eyes. Here they were, all of them having trained their powers as much as they could by battling countless Shadows, yet whatever the Shadow teen they were facing was, it was holding its own against them, and easily at that.

"_Senpai, it has no weaknesses!"_ shouted a panicked Rise, who had been thoroughly analyzing their opponent since the beginning of the fight.

"_Indeed. Dear, do please stand aside, this one is interfering in matters that it should be leaving alone."_ said a refined, female voice, causing the group to stop and look at the new arrival.

Yu stared, and he wasn't the only one. None of his friends could comprehend just who the new arrival was, but he knew. He knew who she was as he spent countless hours managing his Personas in the Velvet room with her, he even received requests from her on a regular basis.

Here, in all her glory, was standing Margaret, looking at the Shadow teen with a disapproving frown of her face.

"_**Oh, I didn't expect the boy's "sensei" to come here too." **_ mocked the teen, only to scream in fright as he narrowly evaded getting beheaded by a man wearing a red scale mail, a shield on his back, and wielding a one-handed sword.

"_**Careful with that, woman!"**_

"_Dear me, aren't you the talkative one?"_ said Margaret, as she opened the book she was holding, taking out a card, flipping it and putting it back in.

The group watched as a blonde-haired, black winged man wearing a skintight attire appeared behind her, just as the temperature dropped, a pillar of ice encasing the Shadow currently preventing them from entering the castle.

After a few seconds, the ice shattered, showing a battered, but still very alive Shadow, with absolute fury plastered on its face.

"_**You bitch! How dare you do this to me, Lord Voldemort?!"**_

Ignoring the furious Shadow, Margaret turned to look at him, before motioning to the castle.

"_Narukami-san, do please hurry. While I cannot interfere any more than this, I am still allowed to erase this...abomination."_

With a nod, he motioned to the others to follow him. They would need to hurry.

"_**COME BACK HERE, VERMIN!"**_ bellowed the Shadow, only to narrowly avoid getting hit by another pillar of ice.

"_Senpai, who was that?"_ panted Rise, as she ran along.

"_A friend."_ was his simple answer, as they entered the castle.

**-Break-**

The group burst into the throne room, and as they feared, Kazuya was facing his Shadow, who was wearing a military-looking attire.

Upon their entrance, the Shadow mockingly waved at them, though Kazuya himself was unresponsive.

"_**Oh? It seems the "normal" people are here to save the day, aren't they, Freak?"**_

The group was shocked to see the normally composed Kazuya look absolutely furious, and some could have sworn that they saw purple energy crackling around his fingers.

"_Shut up, whatever you are! You don't know me! And STOP calling me by that name!"_

At that, the Shadow laughed, a cruel and harsh sound that sent shivers down the spines of those present.

"**I don't know you? Of course I do, I AM you. How would I know about the Dursleys, otherwise?"**

The group had no idea who the Dursleys were, however seeing Kazuya pale, they knew it had to be something very few people knew about, if the mere mention of the name was enough to cause such a reaction. A few made the motion to interrupt, however they were blocked by Yu's extended arm, as the grey-haired teen shook his head. This was something Kazuya had to go through by himself.

"_How?_" choked the green-eyed teen.

"_**How? Are you deaf, I am You. I know everything about you. I know why you never let anyone get too close to you, and all your darkest secrets.**_

_**You **_**crave**_** friends, yet not once in all the years you've been in Inaba have you tried to get close to anyone outside of Dad, Nanako, and Mom. And after what happened to Mom, you decided that you'd rather die than let anyone close again."**_

At that, the group winced, they knew that Kazuya and Nanako's mother had died, and it was rather obvious that it had deeply affected both children, at least from what Yu had told them about their behavior when they were at home.

"_**It's not just that, though. You want to have friends, but you have no idea about how to **_**become**_** friends with someone. After being singled out for years, there's simply no way you can trust others, not when they let you be bullied or bullied you themselves. What's more, you envy them, you envy their innocence, their ignorance."**_

The teenagers looked at each other, then at Yu, expecting him to know what the Shadow was talking about, but the gray-haired teen simply kept on focusing on the Shadow.

"_**They are sooo stupid, whining because they don't have their latest obsession, because the girl they want doesn't look twice at them...What a bunch of pathetic trash. They wouldn't be half as whiny if they were forced to live in a cupboard, or if they had been treated as slaves, not even allowed to eat more than the scraps left to them. Let's see how they would handle being called Freak every day, all day, for years, how they'd react to be forced to do chores outside, no matter the weather, even if it's raining, and then being sent to a cupboard with no blanket and nothing to dry themselves off."**_

The Investigation Team was stunned by what the Shadow was saying. Sure, not all of them had been living in Inaba long enough to know of his circumstances, but those that did, did remember that at first Kazuya had been too small and skinny for his age, but they had no thought it was the cause of abuse.

"_So?"_

_"__**You hate them, right? You hate them for being able to live normally, without having to worry about reliving their past every single night, you hate them for not having to care for a younger sister because their father is too busy drowning in his grief to notice he has a daughter."**_

_**"**__Shut up! That's not true!"_

Kazuya was visibly trembling with rage now, and they knew it wouldn't be long before he snapped and denied the fact the Shadow was in fact a part of himself. And predictably, it was what happened next.

"_You're NOT ME!"_

The first sign that the Shadow was going berserk was a gathering of black energy around it, surrounding it and fusing with it. Wind blew as the Shadow changed from a Kazuya-lookalike to something else, and maniacal laughter came from the center of the maelstrom.

"**YES! YES! THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!"**

As the wind died down, the group saw that the Shadow now no longer bore any resemblance to Kazuya. It was now ten feet tall, clad in what appeared to be a tattered black cloak, resembling a military coat, with silver linings. It's face was hidden behind a grimacing white mask with black markings on its borders, small horns (for its size), growing from its forehead. Its' hands finished with metallic claws, while pure energy crackled around its fingers. Finally, a lone, silver strand of fabric hovered around its' neck.

"**I am a Shadow, the True Self..."**

As the Shadow brought back an arm, the team sprang into action.

**-Break-**

Kazuya glared at the Shadow, his emotions whirling out of control, something he was not used to. Usually, he was able to keep his temper in check, however this _thing_ had just blurted out his most secret, darkest thoughts, and he felt sickened that he wasn't able to refute them. It was all true, he _hated_ other teenagers, because they had the luck to have a childhood, while he had not. Oh, the Dojimas had tried to make up for what he had lost at the Dursleys, but while one could trade innocence for maturity, it simply didn't work the other way. He hated the fact that he disliked other people for something out of their control, but he couldn't help but feel jealous. There was also the fact that while he did not mind taking care of his sister and the Dojima household, he didn't appreciate to not have any time for himself. Any free time he might have was spent either training, taking care of Nanako or the house, or at school. He simply didn't have any time he could spend relaxing, doing things for himself, and apparently, some part of him felt jealous of others for that too. But could he help it? Of course not. It was human nature to feel jealous of others, the trick was to accept you were jealous and not show it, not _act upon_ it. Saying that good people weren't jealous was a lie, perhaps a very little minority weren't, but most simply accepted they felt resentment towards others, but didn't let it cloud their relationships with others.

As he watched his cousin and his friends risk their lives, trying to defeat his Shadow, he realized that maybe he had been stupid to avoid all forms of relationships beyond basic friendship. If these people were truly selfless enough that they actually accepted the fact they were risking their lives for someone they barely knew, then perhaps they were worth knowing. And if they were, then perhaps others were worth knowing too. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to believe that more than a few people were actually genuinely nice, but it was that small minority that made it worthwhile trying to connect with others.

As he gazed upon the Shadow, he felt his calm come back. This was him, no doubt, it simply knew too much to not be. It also meant that now that it was trying to kill his cousins and his friends, it needed to be put down, and a feral grin stretched on his face at the thought of beating the shit out of that thing. He needed some stress relief, and he knew just how he was going to get it.

**-Break-**

Yu was sweating, his two-handed sword being used as a temporary crutch. No matter what they did, they Shadow just shrugged it off as if it was nothing, and Rise still hadn't told them what it was vulnerable to, meaning that with their luck, they had hammered it with attacks that didn't affect it.

"_Senpai! It has no weaknesses, but it's resistant to all magical damage!"_ shouted the former idol, as she started to look panicked. She could be, after all, what she had just discovered meant that they had to use physical attacks, and save for Chie, Kanji, and some of his own Personas, they didn't really have heavy-hitters.

"_Hey, cousin!"_ shouted Kazuya, and he turned, seeing that the green-eyed teen was just behind him. It was quite surprising, considering how most of his other friends had been out of it for most of the battles against their Shadows. However, from what Kazuya's Shadow had said, he had lived through far worse, meaning he had the strength of will necessary to focus on what was important at the moment instead of wallowing in self-pity. "_Looks like you could do with some help!"_

Now _that_ attracted the attention of the others, as the Shadow was currently gathering energy, meaning they could have a little breather, since they knew it needed around thirty seconds to gather what it needed.

"_Eeh...Dojima-san? You don't have a weapon, you can't help us..."_ said Yukiko, looking a bit uncomfortable pointing out the fact he couldn't help them...or so they thought.

Kazuya simply gave them a feral grin, before turning to look at Yu once again.

"_I've been trained by Margaret, I'm sure this Shadow can't be worse than her."_ he said, causing the grey-haired teen's eyes to widen. He had never fought against Margaret himself, but what little he had been able to gather about her abilities was quite scary, he wasn't sure that with all of them going all out on her they would win.

"_Senpai! Look out!"_ shouted Rise, just as the Shadow unleashed a devastating ice attack, freezing everything in its' path, only to hit a wall and disappear completely before reaching the group.

"_I don't give a shit if you're me or not, but you'll do fine as stress relief."_ growled the only Caucasian present, cracking his knuckles. "_No one fucks with my mind. And nobody touches my family."_

**-Break-**

A battered Shadow looked up at a panting Kazuya, while the Investigation Team stood at a distance, leaving him to do what needed to be done. The battle had taken a rather unexpected direction when Kazuya had started hurling magic at the Shadow, especially since unlike their own, elemental attacks, he sent what Yu identified as Almighty attacks, which bypassed any kind of protection, even Mararakarn, which usually deflected any kind of magic. They had helped, of course, using as much physical attacks that they could, and the Shadow had eventually been vanquished, however, it _ had _done a number on all of them. Luckily, none of them sported scars from this battle, though some of their older fights _had_ left them with reminders that saving people wasn't easy nor risk-free.

The Investigation team watched as Kazuya accepted his Shadow, causing said Shadow to smile weakly as it was surrounded by blue light..

"_Thou art I and I am Thou...I am Tsukuyomi, the Moon God."_

Kazuya's Persona bore a strange resemblance to Yu's original Persona, Izanagi. Both wore long coats, though Tsukuyomi's was black with silver linings artfully decorating it. It also had a mask, with two holes letting two amber eyes shine through, with silver horns protruding from its forehead and forming a hollow circle. Its' fingers ended by metallic claws, and energy crackled around their tips.

As he gazed proudly upon his newly awakened Persona, Kazuya felt himself grow weak, not that he was very surprised, the fight had taken out a lot of him, so he sat down before his legs could no longer support him. Two seconds later, he was out like a light.

**-Break-**

From there on, things became very interesting for Kazuya. For the first time in years, he felt like he could be himself around other people than his family, and, even if he denied it, Naoto. Even Dojima seemed happy that his son socialized a bit, and Nanako was ecstatic that her older brother had made friends, since she too had worried about him. That had prompted him to take her with to Junes more often, and the young girl was often found _beaming_ at her older brother, and her cousin. Yu had started to take the place of another older brother to her, and Kazuya made no effort to stop that, he even encouraged the two of them to spend time together.

There was also what he had learnt from the Investigation Team. Someone was putting people inside the "TV world" as they had dubbed it, causing them to face their Shadow, and if they hadn't been there, die as the manifestation of their repressed thoughts killed them. They had already a theory, and so far it seemed to have proven correct: all those that were aired on the news had been those put in the TV World, he himself had been the subject of a rather popular reportage. The media had wanted to know who was the person always hanging out with Naoto, and they had interviewed him. In the end, the reportage had earned him a bit of a reputation at Yasogami High, since the students there knew his asocial attitude quite well, not that he cared much for them.

He _had_ told Naoto about what he'd found, and despite her reluctance to accept the supernatural, after being shown proof, she had been convinced that he was saying the truth. As a matter of fact, she had asked to help the Investigation Team, knowing full well what that entailed. There was no way someone without a Persona could help them in the TV World, therefore she needed to get her own. Unfortunately, that meant exposing her secret to the others, and he had told her so, she deserved to know what would happen before making a choice. However, she had said it was a price she was willing to pay if it could help her find the culprit behind the murder cases. Besides, she had the Investigation Team to help her.

**-Break-**

"_So, uh...You're a girl?"_ asked Kanji, a bit lamely.

"_Yes, Tatsumi-san, I am indeed female, not male. However, I fail to see how this is important. Right now, what is important is to find whoever puts the people in the TV World for them to be killed."_

At that, the others nodded. They were sitting around a table at Junes, which had become their meeting place since it was close enough to Junes for them to easily get inside the TV World if need be.

"_Now, let's go over what we know: all those that were rescued said they remembered been called to answer their door, and then woke up in the TV World. As such, it is safe to assume that the culprit is someone any of us would open their door for."_

Once again, those present nodded. It made sense, after all.

"_But who? I mean, sure, I understand the reasoning, but who would be able to fit the criteria, and who would be able to drag unconscious people to their place before dumping them in the TV?"_ asked Chie.

"_That is an excellent question, Satonaka-san. However, it is the hardest one to answer, as Dojima-san here has shown the ability to use supernatural powers outside of the TV World. As such, there is a possibility that someone else might be able to do the same, and could for all we know teleport back to their home with their victims."_

At that, everyone turned to look at Kazuya, who simply shrugged, as if saying _So I can use supernatural powers whenever I want. Sue me._

In the end, they agreed to keep an eye open, and left.

**-Break-**

"_This is going to complicate things."_ sighed Naoto, as she watched the police take custody of Kubo Mitsuo, whom they believed to be the serial killer.

Behind her, the others looked either disgusted by the boy who seemed to be relishing in the attention, despite the fact that he was being accused of killing several people, one of them being their teacher, not that they would miss the idiot. They knew Mitsuo couldn't be the true serial killer, after all there were too many inconsistencies in his story for him to be the true killer. There was distinct evidence of their teacher having been killed by a blow to the head, while there was absolutely no physical evidence on either of the other victims. What was more likely was that Mitsuo was a copycat, and that he merely imitated the other crimes.

"_We could point out what's wrong to the police, don't you think that would make them think about it?"_ asked Chie, clearly unhappy about the situation.

Naoto and Kazuya surprisingly shook their heads in unison, causing the others to shake their heads at how similar the two of them were. It was clear for all of them that the two were attracted to each other, but neither of them seemed to be noticing it.

"_At this point in time, I doubt it would do much good. The higher-ups wanted this case closed as soon as possible, with Kubo-san willing to claim all the murders as his own, they will be happy to use him as a scapegoat. And telling them they are wrong will just make them more willing to discredit us, so that their incompetence isn't shown to the public."_

_"So what? End of story, that's it?" _growled Chie, clearly angry.

"_I never said that, Satonaka-san. We still have to catch the true culprit, but we cannot bring this to the police until we have ironclad evidence, otherwise what we say will amount to nothing._

_However, this is as much as a blessing to us than a curse. Now that the police will claim the culprit is arrested, the true culprit may become complacent and make mistakes that will lead us to them."_

The others nodded at that. They were the only ones who knew the truth, and they weren't about to let a serial killer roam free!

**-Break-**

"_**And our last competitor...The Detective Princess, Shirogane Naaaoootoooo!"**_

The auditorium exploded into cheers and catcalls, but when the spotlight lighted the place where the bluenette was supposed to be standing in a swimsuit, there was nobody there.

"_**Shirogane-san?"**_

At the call of her name, a very flustered Naoto peeked her head from behind the stage.

"_I...I can't do this."_

And after saying that, she hastily retreated, leaving the contest for miss Yasogami with one competitor missing. However, seeing as she was too flustered to look where she was going, she ended up bumping into someone, and was about to fall down when a steadying hand caught her.

Looking up, she blushed a storm when she realized that the one to catch her was one Dojima Kazuya, who was apparently also very red, and looking at her bikini-clad body with appreciation in his eyes, before realizing what he was doing and looking away.

"_A-a-ano, D-Dojima-san?"_ she stuttered, feeling distinctly uncomfortable being held by a male when she was barely covered.

"_Er...Uuuuh...Sorry."_ he said, looking away from her as she stood up.

She was about to dart to the changing room when she felt someone handing her a coat.

"_Thank you, Dojima-san."_

Using the coat to cover herself, she felt a bit more at ease now that nobody could see her body. She watched as the young man had his back turned to her, and she felt herself feel a bit warm under the collar.

She was perfectly aware that he was quite handsome, she had heard many girls from Yasogami High saying it was a waste that someone so handsome was so asocial, but at least now he talked to other people. She had always tried to "be" a boy, acting like one, forcing herself to _think_ like one, lest she slip up and compromise her disguise, but lately she had started to feel a bit more like the teenage girl she was, and it felt strange to her. Being able to be herself, not having to keep on a mask at all times made her feel better than she ever had while pretending being a male. However, what troubled her the most was the fact that she was starting to feel attracted to Dojima Kazuya.

He was unlike any other man she had met, he had known she was female, yet didn't seem to care about the information, using it merely to prove he could help her. That was also something that had startled her, his urge to help, to do the right thing. Many others would have tried to force her to let them help in the investigation, tried to leech information from her, tried to have themselves associated to the investigation, yet he hadn't, he had merely requested it, so long as it didn't hamper the investigation. He could use supernatural powers without using a Persona, yet he had never abused said powers. It was like someone had taken a Prince Charming out of a novel and given him form in the real world, he was simply _too perfect_ to be true. Of course, she was aware of his less than stellar circumstances and the scars it left on his psyche, but she could admire him for that. Many a man would have turned far worse than he did, yet he had never done _anything_ wrong in all the time she had known him.

She had also shared, albeit reluctantly, a bit of her life story with him, and he had not tried to pass judgment on her, he had merely accepted her for who she was. He hadn't tried to tell her she should act more like a girl, which in hindsight _might_ be the reason why she felt the need to be more feminine.

"_Dojima-san? Once I have dressed again, would you like to come with me sample the activities the festival has to offer?"_

_"...Sure, I'd like that."_

**-Break-**

It was the letter that sent things spiraling out of control. Yu had received a few during his stay at the Dojimas, but the last one had been given to him by his Uncle himself, and he was not amused. Kazuya could only watch as his father dragged his cousin to the Police station, despite his own protestations.

"_Kazuya, you stay here. I know you're always with Yu, so don't think I won't be having words with you later. Right now, I want you to take care of Nanako while I get to the bottom of this."_

So he had reluctantly agreed. If the culprit knew where Yu lived, then there was no way in Hell he was leaving Nanako alone, especially at a time like this, it would be perfect for someone to come and kidnap her, and he would rather die than let it happen.

**-Break-**

It was later that evening that someone rang the door, and Nanako immediately went to open, saying it was the delivery man. However, when he heard that, Kazuya's mind clicked. He had been trying to find just who the culprit was, and his sister's words stroke him like lightning.

_Who would you always open your door to? The delivery man._

_How could you drag an unconscious body with you without being suspected? By using a delivery truck, nobody would look twice at one. There's even the place to store a TV there._

Then he remembered that Namatame Taro, the politician whose affair was the hot topic at the beginning of spring, was currently working as a delivery man, and that the first two victims were close to him.

"_Nanako, don't open the door!"_ he shouted, already moving, but the distinct sound of the door opening made his blood turn cold, and he rushed to push his sister away from the pale man standing in front of her, who was already moving his arm to grab her.

He reached her a millisecond before the man, and quickly pushed her behind him, startling her.

"_O...Onii-chan?"_ she asked, confused.

However, her confusion changed to shock and fear when the man took a knife out, pointing it towards Kazuya.

"_M-M-Move! I will save her!"_ he stuttered, his knife clearly trembling. He was visibly not in his right state of mind, and seeing that Kazuya wasn't moving, he tried to scare him by thrusting the knife in a way that he thought threatening.

"_Nanako, call Dad!"_ shouted the elder Dojima, while the little girl scrambled to do just that.

"_NO! I WILL SAVE HER!" _screamed the older man, struggling to push Kazuya aside.

However, the teenager didn't budge, and they struggled to incapacitate the other. It was almost an even match, for despite being younger, Kazuya was fitter, more used to physical struggles due to his training, while Namatame was a little stronger, and desperate. In his desperation, he tried to wave his weapon wildly, probably hoping that it would cause the younger male to back off, but that was without knowing the teenager in front of him. It simply caused the two of them to fall on the ground.

As luck had it, Kazuya, suddenly falling, released a bit of pressure on the knife that Namatame was holding, while the older man kept pushing with all his might. As such, the blade found itself buried in the teen's stomach, as he cried out in shock, followed quickly by a yelp when the delivery man realized that he had stabbed the teen.

"_No. No no no no! I didn't want to do this! I wanted to save her! Why did you stop me?!"_ he shrieked, spit landing on Kazuya's face. Then his face set into a mask of determination, as he stood up, trying to get past the now downed teen.

"_Even if I can't save you, I'll save her!"_ he said, trying to rush towards where Nanako had gone, only to have his foot caught by Kazuya.

"_You..."_ growled the teen, trying to stop himself from crying in pain as the pressure of the ground drove the blade further into his body. "_ Stay here, you piece of shit!"_

The last thing he saw was a foot coming down, before he was sent into the wall by the impact, his lower lip bursting. He laid there, his head ringing from the shock, no matter how much he tried to clear it.

_Shit..._

He could vaguely make out the screams of his sister when Namatame caught her and dragged her to his truck, screams that became even shriller when she spotted him on the ground, a blade in his gut and bleeding heavily, his face with a foot mark on it. At this point, he would have tried to unleash one or two of the nastiest elemental spells he knew, however he couldn't concentrate, and he would have risked harming his sister.

So he could only watch as his sister was abducted, warm blood slowly flowing from his body and forming a crimson pool around it.

**-Break-**

A very worried Naoto burst out of the door of the cab she had rented to check on the Dojima household. She had been contacted by a panicked inspector Dojima, claiming that his daughter had called him about a man trying to enter their house and fighting with her older brother, and asking her to check his house as she was closer to it than him at the moment. What had her worried was the fact that the distraught man had clearly said the call had been interrupted, meaning that whoever was trying to enter the house had managed to get past Kazuya, and that was not something she wanted to think about.

Reaching the door of the house, she realized it was still open, and she rushed inside. What she saw made her blood run cold. Leaning on the wall of the corridor was one Dojima Kazuya, his lower body covered in blood coming from a wound on his stomach, and trying to stand.

"_Dojima-san!"_

The scream caused the teenager to look up, and fix Naoto.

"_Naoto..."_ he rasped."_Namatame...He took my sister! We have to get her back!"_

_""We" will do nothing!"_ she snapped, surprised by her own anger."_ You will stay here until the ambulance comes! I will track Namatame! Now stop pushing yourself!"_

With that, she carefully pushed him down, trying to limit the blood flow, even if Kazuya was clearly glaring at her.

After a couple of calls, one to the elder Dojima and the other requesting an ambulance, she looked at the teenager.

"_Naoto, why aren't you looking for my sister?!"_ growled an irate and very agitated Kazuya.

"_I already notified Dojima-san of Namatame's actions, and he was already tracking him. We also know that she is in no immediate danger, seeing as he will put her in the TV World, and we can ask Kujikawa-san and Teddie-san for her location._

_You, on the other hand, are in a critical state, and as such I am obligated to make sure you do not overexert yourself. It is already a miracle you're still conscious with how much blood you lost."_

_"I'm fine."_ growled the teenager, though she could clearly see his eyes dropping every now and then, even if he tried to hide it.

"_You are not fine, Dojima-san. Now silence, and wait for the ambulance!"_

That sent the pair in an uncomfortable silence, only disturbed by the sound of rain.

"_Dojima-san?"_ she asked, after a moment, trying to keep him awake.

There was no answer.

**-Break-**

"_How is he?_" asked Dojima Ryotaro, leaning on his crutches, worry clear on his haggard face.

He seemed to have aged nearly two decades in a few hours, not that anyone could blame him. His daughter had been abducted, and his son was in the Critical Care ward, while he himself was supposed to stay in his room after the car accident he got into while trying to catch Namatame.

The Investigation Team was there, all of them waiting with baited breath for what the surgeon was about to say. The females had puffy eyes, save for Naoto who was leaning on the wall, her arms crossed and a vacant look in her eyes. Nobody knew what had happened while she had been alone with Kazuya, but it seemed to have greatly shaken her.

"_He's in a coma, right now. He lost too much blood, and his body is barely keeping him alive, which is already a miracle in itself. Anyone else would be dead, _should_ be dead. I am sorry, Dojima-san. I doubt he will ever wake up."_ said the surgeon, looking like he himself could do with some sleep.

The elder man stumbled, his eyes wide, and he was only able to stay upright because his nephew had caught him.

"_No..."_

_"Shit! Why him?!"_

_"Dojima-kun..."_

By now the females in the Investigation Team were crying, while the males looked like they wanted to do the same, but were forcing themselves to stay strong for the sake of their friends. However all of them were surprised when Naoto bolted, leaving the group behind.

Rise was the first one to react.

"_I'll go check on her."_

**-Break-**

The former idol eventually found the bluenette standing outside, in the cold, her face looking at the sky.

"_Naoto-kun?"_

_"What?"_ came the answer, though the voice was hoarse.

"_Naoto-kun...You loved him, didn't you?"_ asked the former idol, standing a few feet behind the famous detective.

A derisive chuckle was heard, and Naoto turned. Rise could clearly make out the tears trailing down her cheeks, and felt her heart break for the poor girl. She didn't know herself what she would do if Yu was ever in the same situation than his cousin, but she doubted she would react nearly as well.

"_I don't even know. I spent so much time with him these last few months, it just became normal for me to seek him out. I was trying to understand, you know? Trying to see if I was really in love with him."_

_"And what did you find?"_ asked Rise, softly.

"_I think I am in love with him. I realized that when I saw him trying to get up, a knife in his stomach, trying to save his sister. But what good will it do? There's a chance he will never wake up."_

_"And there is a chance that he will. Naoto-kun, you should tell him. Even if he isn't conscious, I'm sure he will hear you. _

_But for now, we need to get Nanako-chan back, it's what he would have wanted."_

Naoto gave a watery smile at that. However there was something in it that sent shivers down Rise's spine. There was something_ wrong_ with that smile. However, she said nothing, and the two teenagers went back inside the hospital.

**-Break-**

"_No, not her!"_

_"Dammit, why?!"_

Cries of fury could be heard in the Critical Care Waiting Room, as the news of Nanako's passing were heard. The poor girl hadn't survived the strain of being in the TV World for too long, and her body had simply stopped working.

Three people were taking the loss especially hard, Nanako's father, her cousin, and lastly, Shirogane Naoto. She seemed to be in shock, too many losses in the span of mere days having taken their toll on her. But more than that, the significance of the losses was what had her so deeply affected. She had learnt that the boy she loved may never wake up, and she had sworn to save his sister even if it was the last thing she did, yet she had failed even that.

In her desperation, she sought an outlet, and a very convenient one was quite close. Namatame Taro was in the hospital, and she felt her sadness change to rightful fury when she realized that everything could be laid at his feet, Kazuya's coma, and Nanako's death.

She discreetly left, feeling the familiar weight of the gun she carried in her pocket.

Namatame would pay for his deeds.

**-Break-**

"_Why, senpai? WHY?!"_ screamed a crying Naoto, as she was held back by Narukami Yu. She had been very close to killing Namatame, and only the fact that she had been tackled by Yu had prevented her from painting the wall red with his blood.

"_Kazuya wouldn't have wanted that. Neither would have Nanako."_ said the grey-haired teen, softly, and Naoto recoiled as if she had been truck.

"_So what? We let him get away with it?"_ growled Yosuke, pointing at she trembling form of Namatame who was babbling in a corner.

"_We're missing something."_ said the grey-haired teen, causing the Prince of Junes to grab his collar.

"_So what?! Are you going to let him go free?!"_

_"Yosuke, calm down."_ said a very serious Yu.

As if there was some kind of hidden magic in his words, the others seemed to come out of their agitated state.

**-Break-**

After taking the time to review the facts, they managed to discover that Namatame was not, in fact, responsible for the first two murders, but he _had_ indeed kidnapped each one of them, out of a misguided attempt to protect them from the serial killer, believing the TV World to be a safe haven.

He had thought his power gave him the responsibility to protect people, and as such he had kidnapped those he had seen appear of the Midnight Channel, which would be the next victims. He had then put them into the TV World, expecting to release them once the serial killer was caught. He had never known that by doing so, he was endangering them, and once he learnt of that, he was quite distraught. The fact that the Investigation Team had rescued each of his victims had even given him the "proof" he was indeed saving people.

In the end, the Investigation Team couldn't hold him responsible, after all he had, in his own way, tried to do the right thing. However, that didn't mean they forgave him, only that they could understand his actions. There was also the fact that since he wasn't responsible for the first two deaths, then the true culprit was _still_ at large. But to know they hadn't killed an _almost _innocent man made them feel a bit better.

**-Break-**

The very first thing Kazuya noticed upon waking, was the fact that he felt like shit, his stomach was hurting him and his head was throbbing like crazy. The second thing he noticed was the group of people looking at him as if he had just told them, with proof, that the Earth was flat and a pizza, and the continents were the toppings.

"_What?"_ he asked, both irritated and confused by the stares of the Investigation Team.

As if his words were some kind of switch, the room erupted in cheers, screams of joy and hugs. However, what he _did_ notice amongst the surrounding chaos were two things: the first was his father, with Nanako standing next to him, both of them in hospital gowns. They both looked a bit tired, but otherwise fine. The second thing was that there was a very beautiful female detective looking like her dearest wish had come true, standing a little to the side of the others.

"_You idiot! You've made us all worry! Sleeping three weeks, what were you thinking, jeez?!"_ said a smiling Chie, while Yosuke grinned and nodded.

"_Onii-chan!"_ shouted Nanako, as she jumped on his bed to hug him, making him wince, but he bore with it. After all, she was all right, and that was all that mattered.

He watched as the others left, to give him some privacy with his family. The last one to leave was Naoto, and she mouthed _I'll be back later_, to which he gave a small nod of confirmation. Now was the time to spend some time with his family.

**-Break-**

It was much later, long after the staff had ran tests to make sure he was fine, that Naoto entered his room, just as he was looking at the scar on his stomach. Surprisingly, it barely stung, then again, he had always been a fast healer, and the fact that he had spent three weeks in a coma had probably helped his body repair the damage done when Namatame had stabbed him.

It was the bluenette's "eep" that alerted him of her presence, as he was too deep in thought to realize she had entered his room. Considering her character, he wasn't really surprised by her reaction, she had never been at ease when it came to things that could be misinterpreted. And seeing him shirtless had certainly not been something she had expected.

Hastily putting a shirt on, he turned to greet her, and felt his heart clench at how cute she looked, her cheeks a deep red and fidgeting under his gaze. Gone was the always composed Detective Prince(ss), there was only a teenage girl in front of him, and a very beautiful one at that.

"_So, how did you fare while I was playing Sleeping Beauty?"_ he asked, trying to defuse a bit of the awkwardness of the situation.

"_...Not well. Not well, at all, much to my shame."_ she finally mumbled, looking both angry and ashamed. "_I would have killed Namatame, if senpai hadn't stopped me."_ she confessed, causing him to look at her in shock.

For someone like her, who had a very strong sense of what was right and wrong, to actually try to murder someone, she had to be seriously out of it. Of course, his father had told him what had happened while he was unconscious, and he could understand her actions. If he had been in her place, Namatame would have been dead, and damn the consequences! Anyone who dared to harm his family, and especially Nanako, an _innocent child_, deserved to be put down like the rabid dogs they were.

"_Don't feel guilty, had I been in your place, I _would_ have killed him, even if from what my cousin told me, he didn't truly deserve it. Then again, I think I might be a bit biased."_ he joked, pointing to his stomach.

However, his joke didn't seem to affect Naoto, who was looking at him while biting her lip, a sight that many would have called adorable, since she was quite small when compared to him.

"_Naoto?"_

"_I am sorry, Dojima-san, no, Kazuya. I failed to protect your sister. I am ashamed to say that I failed you."_

_"Failed...me? What are you talking about? Sure, I wanted you to rescue my sister, and that's what you did. Heck, Yu told me that they often had to drag you behind them when you were exploring the dungeon she was in, otherwise you would never have left before you rescued her. I don't think I could have asked more of you."_

Naoto was now looking at him if he had sprouted another head.

"_But...She died!"_

_"...And yet now she is alive, safe and sound. She is even worried about you, you know? Naoto...I know there's something you aren't telling me. I won't pry, since it probably isn't my business anyway, but I'll say this: don't hold yourself responsible for what happened to my sister. You did your best to save her, and even if it isn't entirely thanks to you, she is alive, and that's all I care about."_

As he said that, he gave her a small smile, which in his opinion she had more than earned. For a moment, she seemed uncertain about something, before she closed the door and sat down on one of the chairs that had been dragged to his room by the others earlier.

"_Naoto?"_

_"Please be quiet, Kazuya. This is...difficult for me."_

Taking a deep breath, she looked up to meet his eyes.

"_I have come to realize, in the last three weeks, just how much I missed having you with me. You were the first person, outside of my family, to treat me like an actual person, and not as the idolized Detective Prince or as a teenager trying to "play cop". At first, I admit, I was merely curious about the person who had managed to see through my disguise. But the more time I spent around you, and the Investigation Team, the more I realized I enjoyed your presence."_

Kazuya was fixing the bluenette with incredulity. Was she really going to say what he thought she was going to say? To him, the most asocial person in Yasogami High? No way!

"_I came to a realization, when I saw you that night, when you were stabbed. When I saw you there, trying to stand and go after the man that abducted your sister despite your injury, I felt as if my world was crumbling."_

By now, he could see tears begin to pour from her eyes, yet he stood there, too stunned to stop her.

"_When you passed out from blood loss, I should have tried to give you first aid, but I was panicking, I was afraid. What if I did it wrong? What if I made things worse?_

_When I heard that you would be in a coma and might not wake up...That's when I realized. I loved you. The Detective Prince I may be, yet I was not able to figure out my own feelings before it was almost too late. Pathetic, isn't it?"_

He was at a loss about what to say, after all due to his asocial nature, it wasn't as if he was very experienced with crying females, well beyond his little sister that is. Of course, considering that usually to calm Nanako down he needed to hug her, he didn't think it would be a very good solution right then and there.

Instead, he put a gentle, if slightly unsure, hand on the bluenette's head, and gave her a small smile.

"_I don't think it's pathetic. Hell, if love was easy to understand, there might be a bit more happiness in this world. Besides, you're used to think with logic, when love is about the farthest thing from logic you can find. And I'd be a hypocrite to criticize you for not knowing what you feel, I'm not exactly the most emotionally stable person around._

_Anyway, sorry if I look like a bastard by asking this, but are you sure you love me? I mean, sure, I like the idea of a beautiful girl falling for me,"-_at those words, Naoto's cheeks darkened noticeably-" _but_ _what exactly is so good about me? I mean, I'm an asocial guy who's overprotective of his family, I'm messed up in the head something fierce, and, well, I'm not even that good-looking."_

This time, it was Naoto who gave him a smile. He was mesmerized by how much the action changed her, how such a simple thing could change her from a stern beauty to a breathtakingly beautiful young woman.

As he stood there, mesmerized by the sight, she reached for his neck and going on the tip of her toes, she gave him a very small peck on the lips, before looking away, embarrassed.

"_Those are a few of the reasons I love you for, Kazuya. Don't change, that is all I ask."_

**-Break-**

Kazuya glared at the giant eyeball floating above the shadow image of Inaba in the TV World. In the end, they had discovered the culprit, and they had been quite surprised by his identity. The culprit was none other than Adachi, his father's useless assistant, who had turned out to be a very dangerous sociopath, caring for little else than his own sick amusement. He had manipulated Namatame to kidnap people for the fun of it, not caring it they died or not. He had sent the letters to Yu because he had grown tired of his group saving the people in the TV World, because he wasn't _entertained_ anymore.

They had managed to corner him, but the bastard had escaped in the TV in Namatame's room, and the worse was when they entered the TV World, they discovered that the insane cop wasn't even threatened by the Shadows, in fact they seemed to obey him. However, after a long battle they had managed to subdue him, only for the giant eyeball to appear and claim it was going to cover the world in fog, as it was supposedly mankind's desire. The thing's name was Ameno-sagiri, and it was seriously starting to piss him off.

That _thing_ was the reason two women died, the reason why people were running around like lost children, and it was trying to turn mankind into Shadows? It was the reason his sister had nearly died, the reason why Namatame had gone crazy and thought he had to protect people? Fine. He had some _serious_ reasons to want it dead, or whatever meant it was gone from the world, preferably with _extreme_ prejudice.

Seeing the others of the Investigation Team getting ready for battle, he grinned. Before long, that _thing _ was going to get its' due for messing around with humans.

**-Break-**

With a surprisingly synchronized battlecry, Ameno-Sagiri was defeated by the combined might of the Investigation Team, each of them unleashing their most powerful skills on the supernatural being.

Yosuke, and his newly evolved Persona, Susano-o, tore their enemy apart with gigantic tornados.

Chie and her Persona counterpart Suzuka Gongen hammered its' shell with powerful physical attacks and ice skills.

Yukiko and Amaterasu burnt everything in their path, unleashing Hell on their foe.

Kanji and Rokuten Maoh hammered Ameno-Sagiri's body with physical attacks and lightning.

Rise and Kanzeon, despite their lack of battle ability, did more than their part by pointing out their enemy's weak points.

Teddie and Kamui rained powerful ice skills down on the one who thought it could mess around with humans.

Yu used his Wild Card's abilities to their fullest, summoning different, very powerful Personas, using a variety of skills, ice, fire, wind, ice, physical, name it and he sent it towards the cause of the fog that had covered Inaba.

However, despite the heat of the battle, he only had eyes for his girlfriend. Naoto, using Yamato-Takeru, unleashed Almighty upon Almighty skills, all the while glaring at the being that had caused the events that had almost cost him his life.

And finally, there was himself. He had unleashed Tsukuyomi's magic and his own on the being, in a maelstrom of pure power, destroying the landscape around him with little care save for the safety of his friends.

The battle had been a hard one, Ameno-Sagiri being a foe far more powerful than any of the Shadows they had faced until then, yet despite that, despite their wounds they had continued to fight, for abandoning would mean dooming the world.

With a final attack, the giant eyeball was defeated, dissolving into nothing, leaving them with a few parting words:

_The wishes of mankind are my wishes. I shall go back to sleep, but should mankind wishes call for it, I shall rise again. Well done showing me mankind's potential, children of new possibilities._

**-Break-**

And life went on. Now that the threat of having mankind turned into mindless Shadows had been averted, the Investigation Team was finally free to enjoy some much deserved peace. Interestingly, Naoto and Kazuya, despite their rather solitary natures, were the first couple among the team, followed closely by Yu and Rise, the idol having finally gotten enough of the rather unresponsive teen. She had kissed him in front of his entire class, leaving him little chance to decline without causing a major fuss. Despite their own sayings that they weren't a couple, Yukiko and Kanji's behavior had betrayed them, as the tall teen tended to make regular visits to the Amagi Inn, while Yukiko seemed to go shopping at Tatsumi's Textiles quite a bit. However, knowing that they would distance themselves from each other if they were teased too much, the others simply let them be. The last ones to get together were Yosuke and Chie, and that had been more an accident than anything else.

It had been Yosuke who had tripped and ended up on top of the kung-fu fan, and after some teasing from Rise, the situation had somehow ended in Chie demanding to know why the brunette didn't find her attractive. Of course, being a bit nervous at the sight of an enraged girl, he had blurted out that he found her quite pretty in her own right, leading to an awkward silence. Two weeks later, they had told their friends that they were together.

Despite enjoying his high school life, Kazuya couldn't shake the feeling that something was _wrong_. As if they had defeated Ameno-sagiri, but that something far more dangerous lurked in the background, waiting to once again cover the world in fog. He had told Yu, and his cousin had surprisingly agreed, saying that he himself felt as if he was missing something. After all, there were disturbing inconsistencies here and there.

First, how did Adachi, Namatame and Yu gain their powers when they didn't confront their Shadows? Who started the rumors about the Midnight Channel, the source of everything?

**-Break-**

As they gazed upon the true responsible of the murder cases, the Investigation Team couldn't help but shudder. In front of them was a gigantic being wrapped in grey bands, displaying a human sized, female human upper body. Said being was Izanami, a Goddess, and the one who had given Yu, Adachi and Namatame their powers, who had started the rumor about the Midnight Channel. She was the one who had created Ameno-Sagiri, who had caused _everything_.

He watched as the others grew angry at the Goddess, while he merely observed. The others may not have noticed, or have simply disregarded that fact because they had been able to deal with all their foes, if narrowly, so far, but Izanami was _way, way _too powerful for them to defeat. His gaze flickered towards his cousin. He was the one with the best chances of defeating the Goddess, after all, Izanagi, his first Persona, was the husband of Izanami in Shinto's lore. There was also the fact that he was, as Margaret and Igor had said, a "Wild Card", meaning he could gain strength from the bonds he had created with people if he had understood their explanations well. And Yu had created many, many bonds in his time in Inaba.

**-Break-**

"_Senpai! NOOOOOO!"_

_"Stop! Narukami-kun! Help!"_

Kazuya watched, helplessly, as one by one, his friends were sucked Kami know where by Izanami's Thousand Curses. Black, spectral arms sprouted from the ground and pushed his friends through dark portals, despite their struggles. He himself had only been able to avoid getting sucked by using his magic to destroy the arms that came too close to him or Naoto, but even then, he was tiring quickly.

In the span of a millisecond it had taken him to glance at Izanami, black arms went through his defenses, and grabbed Naoto, dragging her down as he tried desperately to catch her, all idea of protecting himself gone as he reached for her. He could see panic, and utter _terror_ in her eyes, as her face was slowly sucked into the ground, his fingers brushing against her own. The last thing he saw before getting sucked in himself was her beautiful face contorted in a silent plea for help.

**-Break-**

Kazuya blearily opened his eyes. He remembered being dragged into some kind of dark void by Izanami's Thousand Curses, but nothing after that. He cringed at the sudden light, but his eyes soon adapted to the ambient luminosity, and he realized that he was laying on his back, in the middle of a field, gazing at a clear blue, and devoid of clouds, sky. Was he dead, and in Heaven? Or did Yu manage to defeat Izanami, bringing him back from wherever he had been dragged?

Looking around, he spotted his friends waking up, but they were apparently the only ones there. Then Teddie proceeded to cheer as he explained they were still in the TV World, which was now back to what he remembered it to be. The resident bear had discovered, shortly after Nanako's "death", that he was in fact a Shadow that had somehow gained sentience. Far from ostracizing him for that, the Team welcomed him with open arms, as they understood perfectly that he was nothing like his mindless counterparts.

As the others cheered and went for a group hug, he went for Naoto, fully intending to make sure she was all right. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but grin at the thought that his cousin had defeated a _Goddess_. He himself had been there, and even if he hadn't been able to do as much as he wanted, he, along with the others had been able to inflict significant damage to a being that was above almost anything humans could send its' way.

_Ha! How many people can say they've stood their ground against a Goddess, even if it was for but a moment?_

But at least now, they were sure everything was going to be alright. There would be no more weird murder cases, no more world-large threats, no more risking their lives to save the ignorant masses.

How wrong he was, thinking he could stay out of trouble.

* * *

**So, some of you might find I rushed parts, specifically between the moment where Kazuya wakes up and when they comfront Ameno-Sagiri, as well as the battle with Izanami, and that's your right. I simply didn't think I would make it as awesome as it was in Persona 4-The Animation (if you don't know Persona 4's story, watch it, it's really a good anime, though you'll get spoiled if you intend to play the game).**

**Next part should be out soon, I need to re-work it a bit.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, here's the second part of the story, sorry for the delay. I'm still not sure I couldn't have done better, but I had no more inspiration, so I posted it nonetheless.**

**A kind reviewer pointed out that the Persona Tsukuyomi already existed, for the character named Sho Minazuki in Persona 4 Ultimax. Good point, I didn't know that. But I'll say that I won't change Kazuya's Persona nonetheless.**

**Now, for a few warnings before starting the stories:  
**

_**-in this story, like in quite a few I have written, the Potters are ALIVE.**_

**-there will be some Dumbledore bashing. Yes, it has been done and sometimes overdone. In this story, Dumbledore is a megalomaniac, something he became after having spent five decades surrounded by people praising him for everything he did (save the Potters, for obvious reasons.) and almost never told off for his mistakes. The fact that he is quite old also didn't help. He is not Evil with a capital "E", he is simply full of himself and unused to not get his way. He is also very stubborn, something he shares with the canon Dumbledore who wouldn't listen to anyone unless he had evidence that he was doing wrong shoved in front of his face.**

**-Fudge is, as usual, a moron. Nothing new there.**

**-Personas users are way more powerful than Wizards and Witches, because fighting Shadows, semi-divine beings and a Goddess made it obvious that they are _very _powerful, to a degree normal wizards can't ever hope to attain, even Voldemort or Dumbledore. They are also a lot more experienced in fights, which is understandable considering they spent their time fighting Shadows.**

**-Margaret can only step into the real world because it is a very special occasion. Wild Cards are supposed to stay in their home universe, which means that having a Wild Card and other Personas users simply vanish from their dimension is bound to create instability, which is something the powers that be do not want. As such, in this occasion only, Margaret is allowed out of the Velvet Room, and only to keep an eye on the Personas users.**

**Now, onto the story!**

* * *

**I don't own Persona 4 or Harry Potter  
**

* * *

**Personas and Wizards-Part 2**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was not having a good week. So many things had gone wrong during the last fourteen years, his plans were now all but destroyed, all that because of Petunia and Vernon Dursley. When he had placed Harry Potter with them, he had known full well that Petunia still harbored the intense mix of jealousy and hatred towards her sister he had felt in her when he had met her for the first time. However, he had never expected her to allow her husband to be downright cruel towards her nephew, and even raise her son to believe that it was his right to bully "the Freak" as they called Harry. He had known that Harry would probably be ignored, or at worst ostracized, but it was necessary for him to grow up humble and not develop an overinflated ego.

He had gone to great lengths to ensure Harry's safety, raising wards around the Dursley household, going so far as to use Blood Wards, powered by Lily's love for her son. He had left a letter to stress Harry's importance to the magical world, and how his wellbeing was paramount. He had even posted Arabella Figg to keep an eye on the Dursleys. She had raised a few concerning points, however it seemed that Harry was not in danger, therefore he had done nothing, since he was already busy with his many positions' duties, and couldn't spare the time unless it was for an emergency.

However, the day when Arabella had stumbled out of his floo screaming about a car accident, he had known that things had taken a turn for the worse. As it turned out, Vernon was taking Harry to a center for young children because they didn't want him at their home for the holidays, but something had gone wrong and the car had hit a tree. Vernon had died in the accident, but there was no trace of Harry, and when he had gone to ask Petunia, she had said that it was Harry's "freakishness" that had caused the accident and killed Vernon. Never had he felt the urge to curse another being so badly that at that moment, he couldn't believe how that woman treated her own flesh and blood.

He had spent days, weeks and even months trying to find Harry, as the instruments tied to his health showed him as still alive, yet he had never found the slightest hint of his whereabouts. Of course, it had caused a huge scandal in 1991, when Harry should have shown up and Hogwarts to start his wizardry education. That very night had seen the ancient castle rock with the screams of fury of Lily Potter and her husband, and shortly after that, of Sirius Black and Minerva McGonnagal.

The Potters, thank Merlin, were still alive after that dreadful night of 1981, Voldemort having wanted to torture them with the death of their son and having merely stunned them instead of killing them. He had spent an entire week convincing the parents to part with young Harry, telling them that the Prophecy meant Harry need the proper education. He had purposely left out the fact that he was going to leave Harry to the Dursleys, and had hoped that by the time he arrived at Hogwarts he would be sufficiently malleable to become the weapon he needed to be. If he was right, then Harry would need to die for Voldemort to be vanquished, and growing up with a loving family would stunt his willingness to sacrifice himself for the Greater Good.

However, after 1991, things had gone downhill very fast, the Potters and the Blacks distancing themselves from him, only ever offering support to stop laws that would reduce the liberties of everyone save the Purebloods. The ICW had stripped him of his position as Supreme Mugwump, citing that he had endangered a child and as such, that he couldn't hope to properly do his job. His position as Chief Warlock of the Wizenmagot had also been given to someone else, since he had been responsible with Harry's safety and had failed in his duty. He had only been able to keep his position as Hogwarts' Headmaster by a very small margin, and even then he was under far more scrutiny than before.

Things had gotten even worse when Quirrel was publicly proved to be a supporter of Voldemort trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone from Hogwarts in 1991, however he had been able to point out that as the safest place in Britain, it had been a judicious choice to hide the Stone there. He had never been more happy that nobody had noticed that the protections weren't beyond what first years could manage.

The next year, things had further escalated when the Chambers of Secrets was opened again, however he had been able to track down the dark artifact responsible and had locked it away for further study.

Finally, in 1993 Peter Pettigrew escaped Azkaban, but at least it couldn't be, in any way, tied to him.

Now, it was 1994, and Hogwarts was hosting the Triwizard Tournament, and he had taken great care of showing that Hogwarts was safe, as there was no way he was going to allow his last position of power be taken from him. He could do without the others, however if he wanted to change the way the younger generations of wizards and witches behaved, he needed to be able to further his agenda at least in Hogwarts. After all, molding impressionable youths was easier than full-fledged adults, and even then adults were always easier to sway to your view if they liked or respected you.

Unfortunately, even that had gone bad, as the night of the selection of the Champions, Harry Potter's name had been selected as the Fourth Champion. The reactions to this were diverse, most rejoicing as it proved their Savior was still alive, however there were also a fair few people pointing out the inadequacy of the security surrounding the Goblet of Fire, since someone had been able to trick it into selecting a fourth Champion, one who wasn't supposed to be old enough to be selected.

He had spent the evening afterwards being berated by the other Headmistress and Headmaster, and even then that had been nothing compared to the tongue-lashing Lily Potter gave him once they had finished. She had a very fiery temper, and he had learnt that an irate Lily Potter could be far more terrifying than Voldemort sometimes, something that James Potter had agreed on before letting his wife continue her angry tirade.

They had told him in no uncertain terms that if their son was alive, then he was going to find him and bring him to Hogwarts before the Goblet could rip his magic from his body for not competing in the Tournament, and that he better tell them of what he intended to try _before_ he did try it. In the end, after looking up every ritual he could, he had finally found one that should do the trick, _and_ was not Dark. Apparently having to use Dark Magic to get their son back was not something the Potters wanted to do.

"Let us begin." said the aged Wizard, looking at the other people present.

They were in Hogwarts' dungeons, more precisely in one that had been hastily converted into a ritual room, with the ritual circle in the middle. There were a fair few people present, there was himself of course, his deputy Headmistress, Severus Snape, Sirius Black, and James and Lily Potter. The last two hadn't wanted their children to attend, as they didn't know how Harry would react to his summoning, and they didn't want to overwhelm him with information.

**-Break-**

**Persona 4 Universe: 2012 (January)**

Kazuya smiled contentedly ad he stroke his girlfriend's hair. Naoto had steadily become more agreeable to physical contact, meaning that it was now a regular occurrence to have her spend time at the Dojima's, or for him to spend time at her flat. Right now she was sitting in his lap, her head resting on his chest as they enjoyed each other's presence. They both knew that in a few months they would need to go their separate ways, since Naoto was going to help in more criminal cases, while he would need to continue his education. They had both agreed that they were together, but a long-distance relationship would probably be far less pleasant for them, as they would probably be able to see each other only a few times a year, unlike now when they could spend most of their time together.

So they made sure to make the most out of the limited time they had left. Every time it was possible, they ate together, cuddled, or even made out. It was very awkward at first, since Naoto was so used to be isolated that the idea of someone touching her body, even if she knew that nothing would happen without her consent, had made her tense the first times. So he had understood, and had slowly gotten her to enjoy their make-out sessions. It never went further than heavy petting, and even that only happened scarcely, since he understood that his girlfriend would still need time to adapt to physical displays of affection.

He watched as Naoto cuddled with him, the female Yasogami High uniform showing her curves nicely. She never wore it at school, preferring the male uniform, however she sometimes put it on for him when they spent nights together. Dojima had not been pleased to know his son slept with a girl, however they had both promised him that no, they didn't do anything else than sleep together, and even if they _had_ done more, they both knew to take their precautions. Naoto didn't want to become a mother so young, and neither did he want to become a father if it meant that his girlfriend wasn't happy.

Their peaceful after noon, however, came to an abrupt end when the sound of a phone ringing broke the silence. Recognizing it as his own, he carefully pushed Naoto to the side, before going to check on his phone. When he saw the message, he knew that things were about to go bad.

"_Teddie says something is up. The Team meets at Junes at 2:00 pm sharp."_

**-Break-**

"_So, Teddie, what can you tell us?" _asked Yu, looking at the blue and red bear.

"_Sensei, there is something beary wrong with the TV World! It's like something's trying to break into it!"_ wailed the Team's unofficial mascot.

At that, everyone's face darkened. The only beings they had own that had been able to somehow affect the TV World didn't have the best intentions towards mankind. Everyone was there, and surprisingly they had all put on their uniforms, with their armor underneath. These armors had saved them countless times before, and considering the message they had gotten, they had all guessed an incursion in the TV World was in order. And if their recent adventures had taught them anything, it was that it was better to hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

_"Teddie, what do you mean by "it's like something it trying to break into it"?"_ asked Yu, as everyone looked expectantly towards the bear.

"_Sensei...It's difficult to say...It's like feeling something is out of place, but you don't know what...There is something wrong, but I can't smell what!"_ wailed the bear, visibly disappointed that he couldn't help his "sensei".

"_It's okay, Teddie. Do you think Rise will be able to get something?"_ asked the unofficial leader of the Investigation Team, causing his girlfriend to beam at how he trusted her powers.

"_I don't know sensei, but maybe if we go into the TV World, she'll be able to sense something I missed?"_

**-Break-**

As the group stood before the TV, they felt the usual nervousness creep over them. Considering that their foes had gotten steadily stronger over time, they weren't really eager to learn what could top a Goddess.

"_So, what are we waiting for?"_ finally grumbled Chie, looking unhappy at the others' hesitation.

"_Errrr..."_ was the highly intellectual answer from Yosuke, causing Chie to sigh and push him inside the TV, before dragging the others inside with her. Had she known what she had triggered, she might have done otherwise.

**-Break-**

**Harry Potter's original universe**

**1994**

Dumbledore coughed as he waved his wand to disperse the cloud of smoke that had appeared. He didn't know if it was a normal result of the ritual, but he hoped so, or else he was going to face an irate Potter family, an irate _Sirius Black_, and both were terrifying. There was also the fact that if he wasn't there to guide the students towards the Light anymore, there was no saying what would happen when Voldemort came back from the dead.

"Albus, did it work?" asked Minerva, the stern witch looking towards the center of the room with apprehension.

Her answer came in the form of a yelp and a string of gibberish, before a smacking sound could be heard.

As the smoke finally cleared, the group of wizards were faced with a group of teenagers, one of which was sporting an angry red mark on the side of his face. The leader of the group was a tall, grey-haired teen holding a sword and calmly looking at them, as if appraising a threat. Behind him was a brown-haired teen holding what appeared to be small daggers, and he had a strange contraption around his neck. He was the one with the red mark on his cheek. Next to him stood a girl with a very short grey skirt and a yellow and green coat, who looked angry at something and was shaking her hand. On the other side stood a tall teen with a black shirt depicting a skull, who had very pale hair and looked ready to hit someone if the glare he was giving them was any indication. Next to the intimidating teen stood a beautiful, raven-haired beauty with black stockings, a grey skirt and a red top. In her hands were what appeared to be fans, though Albus had to admit they were truly works of art. Standing a little in front of her was what appeared to be some kind of giant plush toy, though it was undeniable that it was somehow alive, and its' paws ended by very sharp-looking claws. Behind the group stood another girl, which would have made a lot of males lust after her should she have attended Hogwarts. She had twin ponytails, and was wearing the same kind of top the others seemed to wear, and he guessed that it was the uniform of their school.

However, those were not the ones that attracted the most attention. Those who did stood next to the grey-haired teen. The first was a dark-haired boy with a blue hat, who was currently pointing a gun at him. Next to him stood a tall teenager with long, black hair, and the most stunning green eyes he had ever seen, eyes that another person in the room possessed. He was currently in a strange stance, and Albus felt as if it was something made to improve hand-to-hand combat's efficiency.

Sirius Black managed to sum up everyone's thoughts with only one word:

"Bugger."

**-Break-**

Kazuya had known that something was amiss as soon as he had entered the TV. Instead of the usual swirling that stopped after a few seconds, this time it had gotten more violent, and he had felt..._sucked_, if such a word could be used to describe the sensation, somewhere, and then he had ended up in a heap on the floor. Apparently he hadn't landed wherever he was, alone, since he heard a yelp.

"_Yosuke, what the fuck do you think you are doing?!"_

Then there was the sound of a smack, and he found himself staring at a sheepish-looking Yosuke, while Chie was dusting herself, looking positively furious. However, both seemed to quickly realize that something was amiss, and stood facing in the direction they could faintly see human silhouettes on the other side of the cloud of smoke surrounding them.

As the cloud of smoke began dispersing, the group went into their usual formation, making sure to protect Rise, as she had absolutely no offensive abilities, and as such was the most vulnerable to an eventual attack.

What they saw left them speechless. Somehow they were in what appeared to be some kind of old basement, a _very_ old basement, considering the fact that it was made entirely out of stone, and facing them were several people clothed with what appeared to be some kind of Victorian era garb. There were several men and two women, though the one that attracted the most attention was undoubtedly the old man in the front, who was wearing some brightly colored robes, and looked like Merlin's caricature.

One of them, upon seeing them with their weapons, simply commented:

"Bugger."

He instantly recognized English, and judging by some of the others' reactions, they had too. His cousin was a given, he was after all the number 1 student in his year, Naoto was another, and apparently Yukiko had recognized it too.

However, recognizing the language was one thing, speaking it fluently enough to be understood was another, and he doubted that Yukiko would manage. He had doubts about his cousin, but not about Naoto, since he knew she had been forced to sometimes speak with foreign cops and as such, develop her English to the level it was understandable by English speakers.

What bothered him was the fact that after looking over the others, all of these people's eyes had focused on him, and that disturbed him greatly. He didn't know any of them, so why were they looking at him like that?

"_Kazuya, why are these people looking at you like that?"_ asked his cousin, though he simply shrugged, having no idea himself.

"Harry? Harry, is it you?" asked the younger woman, a redhead in her middle twenties.

Immediately, he felt his hands curl into fists. These people knew his birth name, and something told him that they may know other things about him.

"Who are you?" he asked, careful to not trip and accentuate his words.

The question seemed to surprise her, and the other people.

"Harry...It's me. Lily. Your _mother_." she said, soothingly.

Not a second later he felt someone grab his outstretched hand as he snarled and rushed towards the woman to strangle her, and he looked down to see Naoto holding him, while the others had advanced, forming a semi-circle behind him.

"_Kazuya, don't."_

_"Naoto. Let me go. She just insulted my mother."_

Seeing that his girlfriend wouldn't let him go until she was certain he wouldn't harm the woman, he turned towards said woman and glared at her.

" . .mother. My mother is dead, and if you _ever_ try to call yourself my mother again, I'll make you regret it."

With that, he let Naoto lead him back towards the others, who seemed to understand that this woman, whoever she was, had touched a _very_ sensible point in Kazuya's life. They all knew Dojima Chisato was dead, and that it had almost shattered the family, since Ryotaro, Kazuya's father, had tried to drown himself in his work, while Kazuya himself was left alone to take care of his younger sister.

What followed was an uncomfortable silence, that lasted until the Merlin-lookalike sighed and said:

"Perhaps we could take this to my office."

**-Break-**

Kazuya looked around the office suspiciously. He was not the only one coming down with a bad case of nerves, the others were quite nervous too, understandable considering they were in a castle that _reeked_ magic by all its' pores. Moving staircases, moving portraits, there were quite a few things that were obviously magic on their way towards the office they were now. However, what made them uneasy was the fact that so far, the people in front of them didn't appear to be Shadows at all, they didn't have the telltale yellow eyes, and weren't that aggressive.

"Before we begin..." said the Merlin lookalike, pointing a stick towards the group, a stick that was hastily drawn back when several weapons were drawn and pointed towards the old man.

Said old man then looked at Kazuya.

"Would you mind telling your friends that I mean no harm? I merely wish to ensure that they understand our conversation."

"Why? I don't believe, or even trust you." he answered. The old man couldn't be that stupid, right? They had just landed Kami know where, they didn't have the slightest clue about these people's intentions, and yet they expected them to listen to an old man, as if his words were gospel?

He could tell by the looks on those people's faces that they were taken aback by his answer. Why? Was the word of some old man that trustworthy? He thought not.

" !" snapped the oldest of the two women, someone who looked like she had never even heard the definition of words like "fun", or "amusement".

His right eye started to twitch, and he felt the urge to just show these people who they were messing with. If there was one thing he hated, it was being treated like a child. He was not a child. He had never been, and he was willing to bet that he was more mature than quite a few so-called adults.

"My name is NOT Potter. My name is Dojima Kazuya, and you still haven't told us what we are doing here!" he snapped. "We have pretty much landed somewhere we don't know, and we don't have the slightest clue about what is happening. And you expect me to trust Mr. Merlin? Not going to happen.

The last time we trusted an inoffensive-looking guy, he turned out to be a sociopath who liked to play with people's lives and almost caused our deaths! So until you have given us a good reason to trust you people, we are _not_ letting you do Kami knows what with your stick!"

**-Break-**

In the end, the Merlin-lookalike agreed to cast whatever he wanted to cast on one person at a time, and since those who were hit by the spell confirmed they understood what they were told in English, they let him cast his spell on the others. However, that already told them a lot about the people next to them, i.e that they could use supernatural powers, though so far theirs seemed less battle-oriented than those they could call upon with their Personas.

"So, old man, the Hell are we doing here?" asked Kanji, whatever spell used on him making it so that he could speak English if he wanted to.

"And who might you be, young man?" asked the same stern woman who had snapped at Kazuya earlier.

"Minerva, please." said the old man, as he turned to face the group of teens in front of him.

"Allow me to introduce myself: I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and this charming lady"-he pointed at the stern woman-,"is Minerva McGonnagal, my Deputy Headmistress. Then you have Severus Snape-"this time he pointed towards a greasy-haired man that had his eyes locked on Kazuya with almost palpable hatred burning in them-" who is a teacher here."

"And those two people are?" asked Chie, pointing towards the young red-haired woman and the man who had wild, black hair standing next to her and holding her hand.

"Ah, yes. Before I introduce them, I am afraid I will have to explain a few things first."

So they listened, for the better part of an hour, they listened as the old man told them about wizards and witches, users of magic that had decided to hide themselves from normal people. They listened as he described the racism towards those that were different, creatures and magicals born from non-magical people alike, and how it had led to a war. The listened as he described the leader of the Dark, a monster by the name of Voldemort who didn't hesitate to murder children, brainwash people to force them to torture their loved ones, and killed all those that stood against him.

"Excuse me, Dumbledore-san, but I find it difficult to believe that someone could be commit so many crimes and not be caught, since I presume that you have a form of police dedicated to track people that misuse magic like this?" asked Naoto, looking quite unhappy.

"Yes, indeed. However, you must understand that Voldemort was not alone. He had many supporters, and many of them were more than willing to hide him or use their money and influence to stop any kind of opposition he might have.

Of course, there were still people who fought him, but alas, most did not dare to stand against him, for it could mean the end of their loved ones. Suspicion was rampant during those times, there was no way of knowing who was on his side and who was not. Magic only served to make things harder, as I am sure you can guess, since there are potions that allow to take the appearance of someone else, and spells to control one's mind.

However, all that ended on the night of October thirty-first, 1981, thirteen years ago."

"Wait a second, what year is it?" asked a pale Chie.

She was met with blank stares from the adults present, who seemed to be thinking _You don't even know what year we are in?_

"Why, it is 1994, of course." said the old man, his eyes twinkling.

At that, they looked at each other with worried glances. Sure, they had seen and done some rather impossible things, but time-travel?

At this point, it was important to note that with all the battles they had gone through, all the blood and tears they had shed together, words weren't always needed between them. It was the privilege of those that had known life-or-death situations and came back alive, the ability to communicate without having to use words, merely subtle body messages. In but a few seconds, the group had come to an agreement: stay silent and try to get as much information about their situation as possible before coming to any kind of conclusion. After all, they had already travelled to what was essentially another dimension when they went inside the TV World, what was not to say that they were actually in another dimension instead of their own, seventeen years before the date they had gone inside the TV?

"Please continue." said Yu, as the others turned back to look at the adults in the room.

**-Break-**

The wizards and witches present in Dumbledore's office were highly confused by the group standing in front of them. First of all, said group was highly unusual, and seemed to follow some kind of secret hierarchy. They had all lived through the First Wizardry War, and as such were baffled when they noticed that these teenagers were unconsciously behaving like war veterans, analyzing them, the place they were in, and everything that may be of use should the meeting devolve into a fight.

**-Break-**

Dumbledore frowned. These teenagers stroke him as odd for several reasons, first of which was their behavior. Then there was the fact that they were all carrying weapons, something that had been rather obvious, but which, now that it was coupled with their behavior, made it quite clear that they had been planning to fight something or someone, and that they had already quite the experience in battle situations. He had not anticipated this when he had used the ritual to summon Harry Potter, he had expected one teen, one that would have been easy to subdue should the need arise. Now here he was, explaining the circumstances behind the summoning, as well as the ones of young Harry, to said teenage wizard and his friends.

From what he could see, Harry was looking older than someone his age should be, and was quite handsome, but in a different way than James Potter. The actual Head of House Potter had always been a braggart with what could be called a bad boy attitude, however from what he could see from Harry's behavior, the teen was calm and composed. He also wore his black hair long, and had a very aristocratic face, giving him a slightly effeminate look, quite like Lord Malfoy. However, where the older man's face was always fixed on a sneer, Harry's seemed to be a mask of cold indifference, yet his emerald eyes betrayed a hidden intelligence and cunning that was quite rare for someone so young.

He would have to be careful with how he handled the Chosen One.

**-Break-**

James and Lily Potter watched as Dumbledore explained the history of the First Wizardry War, their eyes roaming on all the members of the group, yet they always came back to fix their son. It wasn't hard to guess which one their son was, as Lily's green eyes were a dead giveaway. They had trouble staying still, as their only wish was to give their son a hug and welcome him back, and only the fact that he wouldn't recognize them made them stop. They didn't want to overwhelm him, and they were sure that he wouldn't take well to have who he assumed to be strangers hugging him.

James was ecstatic to have his son back, it had been very hard on him to learn that his first son and heir couldn't be found, especially since he had been the one to push Lily to accept Dumbledore's offer. He had been raised in the belief that the old man could do no wrong, and hadn't seen anything wrong with giving their son to him, since they knew he needed training, and to be kept safe, something that despite their best intentions, they couldn't be sure to give him. Peter's betrayal had shattered their confidence in their friends, and they hadn't wanted to take any chances with Harry's safety. But boy, was he proud of the teenager his son had become, he was handsome, and he was quite sure that if he was anything like him, he would have a lot of girls crawling at his feet soon. He couldn't wait to teach him Quidditch and how to prank like a Marauder!

Lily was trying her best to not run to her son and give him a hug to make up for all those she hadn't been able to give him so far, but it was quite difficult. However, she knew in her heart that her Harry didn't know her, as James and her had gone to visit Petunia in the hopes of learning about her son. To say she had been devastated when she had learnt that not only her sister didn't care in the slightest about her son, but had even told him that James and her were drunks that had died in a car crash. She had even gone so far as to say that at least "the Freak" had had the decency to die before becoming a burden on their honest income. To see her son in front of her, healthy and with good friends, was a dream come true for her.

**-Break-**

"So let me get this straight: I'm some kind of revered wizard Messiah, at least in the eyes of most people, all that because I supposedly vanquished an evil wizard at the tender age of one, and to protect me from those that would want to harm me, I was sent to the Dursleys, where I disappeared from at the age of seven when Vernon Dursley died in a car accident.

Then this year, some kind of magical tournament involving three schools is held, and instead of the three champions expected, my name is selected as the one of the fourth champion, never mind the fact that the security should have prevented that from happening. Of course, seeing that if I fail to compete in said tournament, which also happen to have a very high death toll, I will die, you had the bright idea to use a ritual to summon me here, never mind the fact that I might have a family that would worry about me. Am I right so far?"

"Potter, I see you're the same arrogant brat than..." started the greasy haired man, only to be cut off by Kazuya, who was not impressed with his attitude.

"I see, you seem to be deaf. Allow me to spell it for you: .NOT. . I was adopted and had my name legally changed to Dojima Kazuya, or Kazuya Dojima if you prefer. I would also appreciate it if you were not so antagonistic, as I do not know you, and as such, cannot have done anything to warrant the dislike you seem to harbor for me."

Then, without caring about the quickly reddening man, he turned towards Dumbledore.

"Now, may I inquire as to how you intend to send us back?"

Eyes twinkling, the old man leaned on his desk.

"Oh? What do you mean by sending you back, Mr. Potter?"

Kazuya returned an icy stare towards the man, as did the others from the Investigation Team.

"Unless you are senile, you cannot have failed to realize that I am not alone, meaning that my friends will need to go back to their families, as they weren't selected to compete in this tournament you speak of. Of course, I would also point out that I also have a family waiting for me, and as such, need a way to contact them, if only to explain the situation to them.

So far, I am not impressed with you, Dumbledore-san. Not only were you the one responsible for the loss of a substantial part of my childhood, as you forbid the only people who knew where I was to check on me or even contact me, but you are also responsible for my selection in this tournament. If your school was indeed the one hosting the event, it would be logical to ensure that there was at least proper security measures to prevent someone from endangering another by putting their name in this Goblet of Fire. However, not only did you fail to ensure security, but instead of contacting the person concerned, me in this case, you found nothing better to do but summon me here, disregarding the fact that I may have a life of my own, and not take kindly to being separated from my family.

Now, I will ask again. How do you intend to send us back?"

By now the twinkling in the old man's eyes had dimmed quite a bit, McGonnagal was spluttering, the greasy-haired man was looking ready to attack them, and the Potters were looking torn between being sad and scolding him for what they seemed to consider as disrespect.

"Mr. Potter..." started Dumbledore, only to stop as he found a fist mere millimeters from his nose.

"This is the last warning you will get, Dumbledore-san. My name is Dojima Kazuya. You will address me as such, or I will ensure that you regret saying my former name. Now, I ask this again: how do you intend to send my friends back?"

"You have to understand, -Dojima, the ritual we used does not work this simply. It is not a matter of simply reversing it. Summoning someone is easy, as you merely have to precise who you want to summon to you, however sending someone to another place cannot be so easily done. However, if you tell me where your friends and yourself came from, I may be able to create an international Portkey, something that would bring you instantly to a given place, proven of course that there aren't any anti-portkey wards up."

At that, the group seemed to relax a bit, save for Yu, Naoto and himself. They had already doubts that they were in the same dimension, but had nothing to prove their doubts. That is, until he thought to ask:

"Tell me, Dumbledore-san...What would be the standard procedure if magic was involved in a mundane criminal case?"

Apparently bemused by the question, the old man folded his hands in front of his face.

"I fail to see how that is relevant, . However, I will answer you this once. If magic was indeed found to be involved in a Muggle criminal case, the standard procedure would be to obliviate the witnesses, meaning wiping their memories, and track down the wizard or witch responsible to arrest them."

"Thank you. May we have some privacy to discuss a few things?" he asked, gesturing to the Investigation Team.

**-Break-**

As soon as they were left alone in one of the unused rooms of the castle, Kazuya discreetly motioned for the others to follow him, and went for the classroom next to the one they had been led to, confusing the others.

"_Ano...Dojima-kun?"_ asked Yukiko, the Amagi Heiress looking a bit scared, which was understandable considering their situation.

"_Just wanted to make sure that the old man wasn't somehow using magic to spy on us. Call me paranoid, but I don't trust him one bit."_

_"I agree with Kazuya."_ said Naoto. "_While we are here, we are vulnerable. No, we are not in the past."_ she added, seeing that the others were about to ask something. "_From what Dumbledore-san told us, we can be almost certain that we aren't in the same dimension anymore."_

_"Eh...Naoto-kun, how do you know that?"_ asked Rise, who didn't seem as uncomfortable as the others.

"_The answer to the question about the standard policy when the supernatural was involved in a criminal case, right senpai?"_

"_Hm. If we were in the same world, we would have met these wizards at one point or another, but we didn't. And there were no sightings of people wearing strange clothes, otherwise we would have known about it."_

_"So, what do we do?"_ asked a worried-looking Yukiko, who sent a grateful stare towards Kanji when the young man put his arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture.

At that, Kazuya, who had been looking around the room, perhaps checking for signs of magic indicating they were spied upon, sighed.

"_We can't do much, I'm afraid. We have no way of going back so long as we don't know how we were brought here, and the best way to learn about that, is cooperating with the old moron, at least for now._

_We have to be careful, though. If what he said is any indication, there are a lot of terrorists roaming free in this world, people who would love to get to any of us because I supposedly did something to their master."_

It was clear for all the members of the Investigation Team that he wasn't happy, but as he had said, they had little choice in what to do. Sure, only he was _forced_ to participate in that dreadful tournament, but they didn't abandon their friends, and even if they had, they had nowhere to go.

However, that didn't mean they were weak. As they say, a cornered beast is even more dangerous than an angry one...And the Investigation Team was certainly powerful enough to make life very, _very_ difficult for its' enemies.

**-Break-**

Meanwhile, in the Headmaster's office, the Potters, Sirius and Dumbledore were discussing what should be done now that the lost Potter had been found, even if said Potter no longer wished to be called so. Then again, James and Lily could certainly understand why, after all they hadn't exactly been stellar parents, what with their abandonment of their son, despite Dumbledore refusing to call it as such.

"For the last time, Albus, he will be staying with us! He's our _son_, for Merlin's sake!" growled James, who was looking mightily angered by the old man's grandfatherly attitude.

"James, the Ministry's laws are quite clear: all children not yet of age _must_ receive a magical education, and Hogwarts is the premiere magical school in Britain. Harry will have to stay in his House's dormitories once he is Sorted, but you and your children will be able to visit him.

Onto less pleasant matters, we will need to see how advanced Harry is in his studies, and perhaps draw up an appropriate training regimen for him. I am sure that none of us would like to see him ending up into Poppy's care."

"My Godson wouldn't have risked anything if you had done your job, Dumbledore!" growled Sirius. "Not only did you put him at the Dursleys', but you didn't even tell us he had gone missing until you had no choice! And now, he's going to risk his life in a Tournament he didn't even choose to enter! All that because you were certain your age line would prevent something like this!"

"As much as I like to see Black looking like a fool, I would like to know what we are going to do about Potter's friends. Will they be staying here too, or are we going to bend over to accommodate your boy wonder and send them back to their families?" intervened the resident Potions' Master, sneering at one of his schooldays nemesises.

James and Sirius seemed about to snap at the greasy-haired man, while Lily could only look sadly at her former best friend.

"You make a good point, Severus. So far, none of the members of Harry's group of friends has displayed even the most basic magic, not even Harry. Judging by their clothes, it would seem that they attend a Muggle school, as I do not remember one of the magic schools having such an uniform."

"Are you saying that out son has never heard of magic, Albus?" said a stunned Lily. "That he is going to a Muggle school?"

"You have seen their reactions when we came to my office, Lily. They were looking around as if it was the first time they saw moving staircases and portraits. While I do not know what country they came from, we both know that moving portraits are one of the most common sights in wizardry schools."

At that point, Lily slowly fell back in her chair, her eyes wide in shock and tears beginning to leak from them.

"Lily?" asked her husband, clearly worried about his wife.

"James, how is he going to do it? Our son will be participating in the Tournament, but _he doesn't know any magic_!" she screamed, distraught. "He's going to _die_, James!"

"Shhhh, Lily flower. You know we won't let Harry compete without help, right? Everything's going to be all right. Sirius, Remus and I will give him crash courses, right mate?"

"You bet! I'm not letting my Godson face this alone!"

Little did they know, that Kazuya _really_ didn't need their help.

**-Break-**

A little later, the Investigation Team was once again in Dumbledore's office, as he explained the need for Kazuya to be "Sorted". It was apparently some kind of custom in the school to have a somehow _sentient hat (_they hadn't seen this one coming) to look into the students' minds and put them in a House, based on their character. From what they understood , Gryffindor was the House of the Brave, those that were, in blunt terms, cannon fodder, as the general attitude was to charge without the slightest hint of a plan, something none of them were prone to do. Then there was the House of Ravenclaw, the House of Knowledge, where the students were, once again in blunt terms, bookworms with little to no social life, preferring the company of books to their fellow humans. The House of Hufflepuff was the House of the Loyal, where the students were always helping each other. Finally, the House of Slytherin, or the House of the Cunning, was supposed to be where all those who had a lot of ambition, or who were very crafty, ended up.

"No." said Kazuya. "I am not a student of your school, and as such, I will not be Sorted. Unless you do not remember it, me and my friends have been _abducted_ because of your mistakes, and as such I cannot in good conscience attend your school when you have a history of making spectacular blunders as far as I am concerned.

There is also the fact that making me a student of your school would be unfair for the other schools, since it would mean that you have two Champions. I will not change the odds of your school winning this Tournament."

"Harry, I..." started Dumbledore, only to be stopped by a punch to the face, that sent him tumbling backwards.

Kazuya then glared at the McGonnagal woman, who was pointing a stick, _her wand_, he amended, on him, as was the greasy man that Dumbledore had called a teacher.

"Mr. Potter! Never in all my years have I seen such uncouth behavior!"

The next thing she knew, her wand was gone, and was in Kazuya's hands, while Kanji had physically restrained the greasy man, who was growling and trying to free himself from the teen's grip.

"Professor McGonnagal, unless you were deaf, or simply not paying attention, I have repeatedly warned your Headmaster that I am no longer a Potter, and that if he called me by my birth name I would make him regret it. I fail to see how it is my fault for following on my threat when it was he who failed to heed my warnings.

Now, as I told Mr. Dumbledore, I will not be Sorted in these Houses. While I am sure it would be an interesting experience, I am also sure that we can interact with your students just fine without actually being students of our school.

I would also like to inquire about our accommodations. While I understand that you were not expecting nine people, it is essentially your Headmaster's fault that we ended up here, without anything to our name save for the clothes on our backs. As such, I would assume that it will be your responsibility to provide us living quarters and money until we can find a way back home."

At that, the other members of the Investigation Team nodded. They weren't happy with the situation, and it _was_ the Headmaster's fault that Kazuya had been selected as a Champion. As such, while most of them disliked the idea of leaving their accommodations to them, it was in the end _their_ responsibility for pulling them from their dimension. And they were all pretty pissed that they may have to spend an entire _year_, at the least, here, while their families would probably be fraught with worry.

Needless to say, they would all be _very_ closely watching these people's moves.

**-Break-**

It was the day of the Investigation Team's arrival that their presence was announced to the students, and a few of them were quite clearly nervous as they waited behind the giant doors of the Great Hall of Hogwarts. All of them were in the clothes they had arrived in, with their armor underneath and their weapons in their hands. That had been a major sticking point with the aged Headmaster and his teachers, but they had been firm and told them in no uncertain terms that they would only agree to stay at the school if they were allowed their weapons, since they didn't know who would or wouldn't want to do them harm. The not-released reason of their apparent paranoia was the fact that they were rather suspicious of a society with high-ranking officials supporting a mass-murdering terrorist.

"And lastly," came the aged by strong voice of the Headmaster," due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be having a few more guests for this year, one of which is our very own Harry Potter!"

Hearing that, everyone turned to look at Kazuya, who looked positively murderous, not that they could blame him, the old man was either completely senile, or was purposely using his birth name to anger him.

They could hear the disbelieving shouts and girlish squeals coming from inside the Great Hall, and the intensity of the reaction caused them to realize just how much these people seemed to worship Kazuya. They still couldn't believe that an entire _society_ was idolizing someone who had _supposedly_ vanquished a mass-murdering terrorist at the tender age of one year old, despite the fact that a baby so young _couldn't possibly know what it was doing_.

As the door opened, they walked forward, tall and proud, not willing to let themselves be intimidated, though not much _could_ intimidate most of them anymore. After facing ultra-powered, semi-divine, or _divine_ beings, even a few hundred students' attention wasn't much.

They had taken a formation they were familiar with, Yu standing in front with Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko, while Rise was shielded on the sides by Naoto and Kazuya, and Kanji and Teddie were ending the procession.

They could hear the whispers, they could see the curious, lustful, or angry stares on them. They could see the fingers pointing to their weapons, but they frankly did not care. These people, while wizards and witches, were just like any other middle-school and high-school students, if with the ability to use magic.

However, they paused in the middle of the Great Hall when they caught sight of a stool with an old hat on it. Apparently, the old man was not used to be denied, and thought that by doing it in front of the assembled three schools, he would be able to force Kazuya to be Sorted. They had a small measure of comfort in seeing the Potters glaring at the old man, they were obviously as unhappy with him that they were.

"Now, Mr. Potter, please come forth so we may proceed with the Sorting." said a jovial-looking Dumbledore.

It took all of Kazuya's control to not simply use a few of his skills on the old man, after all now his spells were clearly powerful enough to end everyone in the Hall save for his friends, but while he had amazing control on his power output he didn't want to tip off the people present about his and his friends' abilities.

"No, I will not." he said, his arms crossed in front of him. "I have already stated that I will not be enrolling in your school, since you seem to be unable to properly secure it. I have also stated, repeatedly, that Harry Potter may be my birth name, but that I was adopted and had my name changed to Kazuya Dojima. I have already broken your nose once for disregarding my repeated warnings of calling me by my birth name, so I do hope that you are not purposely ignoring my warnings, and are merely going senile."

By now the Great Hall was absolutely silent, and the reactions to Kazuya's statements were varied. One of the tables, where the students were wearing the school's black robes and had crimson and gold trimmings, seemed to have a lot of people glaring at him, though a few seemed to be agreeing with him. Another table, this time with silver and green trimmings on their robes, had a fair few people looking surprised, and quite a few looking at the Investigation Team with narrowed eyes, as if to determine their worth. Another one, with yellow and black trimmings, seemed to be torn between scowling and appraising, while the last table seemed to be entirely uninterested, save for the students wearing blue robes, probably foreign students from one of the other schools.

Coughing, Dumbledore spoke up, his grandfatherly attitude full blast:

"I am afraid that you will need to be Sorted, Harry."

As he used Kazuya's birth name, a fair few people looked at him as if he was stupid. After all, he had expressed his wish to be called by his new name, why did the Headmaster continue to call him by his birth name?

"You see, unless you have a teacher willing to represent yet another school, you will have to belong to one of the schools competing in the Tournament."

Hushed whispers could be heard, after all the situation was highly irregular, why not allow the newcomers to represent another school? The foreign students seemed to agree with the Investigation Team, after all if he did belong to a school, it would like doubling their chances to win the Tournament, and everyone could see it would give said school an unfair advantage.

"There is no need to worry, then. My Master requested that I be their teacher to face this ordeal." said a melodious voice, coming from behind the Team.

"Margaret?"

**-Break-**

Once again, the Investigation Team found itself in the Headmaster's office, only this time, there were a _lot_ more people than before. First were the three original Champions, two young men and a stunningly beautiful young woman, as well as the foreign Headmaster and Headmistress. All of them were standing next to Dumbledore's desk, and looking at the group and the woman sitting on a chair, making it looking as if she was sitting on a throne.

"I believe introductions are in order, then." said Dumbledore." I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"I am Olympe Maxime, 'eadmistress of Beauxbatons." said the giant woman, who was staring rather intently at Margaret.

"Igor Karkaroff, Headmaster of Durmstrang." said the stern-looking man, looking rather angrily at Kazuya.

"Cedric Diggory, Hogwarts' Champion." said the young man in black robes with black and yellow trimmings.

"Fleur Delacour, Beauxbatons' _Championne_." said the stunningly beautiful young woman, who was eyeing the male members of the team with a surprised look on her face.

"Viktor Krum, Durmstrang's Champion."

"A pleasure. My name is Margaret, and I am Master Kazuya's teacher, as well as a good friend of Master Yu."

"Master?" asked simultaneously Naoto, Rise, and the adults present, the former two either looking coldly or glaring at their respective boyfriends.

"It is of no importance. My Master asked that I act as a chaperone for my students' friends, as such I will be acting _in loco parentis_ for them."

At her words, Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.

"I can understand that you will be acting _in loco parentis_ for them, however young Mr. Potter's parents are here at Hogwarts, and can act in his best interests."

"I am afraid that they no longer are his parents, Mr. Dumbledore. Master Kazuya was adopted legally when he was eight, as such, his birth parents are no longer his legal guardians. His legal guardian, Mr. Dojima Ryotaro, will of course need to be notified of his son's situation, something that you should have done, or at least attempted to do already."

"I am afraid that I have been busy today, I will of course make sure to correct this as soon as possible. However, before anything can be done, may I know what you teach? I will need to notify the Minister of your field of expertise."

If anything, the blonde attendant of the Velvet Room seem to be amused by the old man's attempts to extract information from her.

"I teach what you would call magical combat. Kazuya has been an especially attentive student of my lessons." she offered, her smile never leaving her face as Kazuya shuddered. Attentive student his ass! If he hadn't been attentive he'd be dead more times than he would care to count!

"Do you mean Duelling?" asked a confused-looking Lily Potter, making her smile even wider.

"No, I do not. Unfortunately, only those that you summoned are able to learn from me, Mr. Dumbledore. As such I am afraid that I will not be able to teach others what I know."

"Oh?"

Apparently her claim that nobody save for the Investigation Team could learn what she had to offer was met with skepticism, but since there was no way of proving otherwise...

"Now, I would like to request living quarters for my students, as well as I."

**-Break-**

In the end, they were settled in an unused corridor, where there were married quarters. When told about the significance of their accommodations, the girls had blushed bright red at the ideas it brought forth, while the boys had to suppress said blush, as well as the feeling of impending doom most men feel when their girlfriends start getting certain ideas about rings and marriage.

Of course, they had been separated by gender, though the girls had seemed strangely disappointed that they wouldn't be able to live with their boyfriends. Of course, Margaret being the Velvet Room attendant, she didn't need living quarters, and had merely told them that she would be seeing the next day for breakfast, as she was going to "train" them. Before leaving them, though, she had told them the best news of the day: time flowed differently in this dimension, and as such they would probably be missing for less than a week in their original dimension. That and they would be able to send mail to their family, seeing as the Velvet Room existed _between_ dimensions, allowing its' residents to freely travel to one or another, not that they did so often. Margaret had told Yu and Kazuya that it was only because this was a special case that she was allowed to be outside the Velvet Room, normally one would need to renounce the right to belong to the Velvet Room before being allowed into the human world.

After Margaret had left, no doubt returning to the Velvet Room, Yu and Kazuya, who had opted to stay together in their rooms, found themselves facing two rather angry young women. While Rise looked more pouty than anything else, Naoto was glaring at Kazuya in a way that promise a lot of pain if he didn't answer their questions correctly.

_"So, Yu-senpai, who was that woman? And why did she call you Master?" _asked Rise, as she sat on Yu's bed.

At that point, Yu and Kazuya glanced at each other. They didn't think they could freely tell people about the Velvet Room, but they did need to explain their rather peculiar relation to Margaret to their girlfriends, otherwise they might end up single.

_"First of all, you might want to know that Margaret is not human. I am not sure of what exactly she is, but she is about as human as Izanami was."_ started Kazuya_. "You have to understand, there are things that Yu and I cannot tell you, cannot tell anybody, really, save those that already are aware of what we talk about._

_The bottom line is that Margaret assists people like Yu, who can use multiple Personas, in using their gift. One day, as I was following Yu, I found the place where she resides. At the time, she said that I needed help to use my powers, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of me in a spar. After a while, I started being able to use skills without having a Persona, but I guess that it was the "magic" these people are talking about that manifested in a form that I could understand._

_Even when I got my Persona, I still went to learn from her, and trust me, she's a damn good teacher."_

Seeing the glares the two young women were sending his way, he sighed.

_"Despite what you seem to think, we aren't attracted to Margaret. Sure, she's beautiful, but I kinda doubt she'd even consider dating anyone. And she calls us Master because it's apparently how she calls the people she ends up helping, or in my case, teaching._

_So if you are jealous, well really, there's no need. I doubt Yu would ever cheat on you, Rise-"_ at that, the grey-haired teen nodded gravely-_", and I for one will not cheat on my girlfriend either."_

At that, he was happy to see that the two young women seemed mollified, though there was still some doubt in Naoto's eyes. He could understand why, of course. She still dressed as a boy most of the time, and unlike Yukiko or Rise, wasn't really feminine, or at least she thought so, it was easy to tell.

Leaving Yu and Rise, he took Naoto's hand and led her to his own room, where he sat her on his bed and closed the door. He could see her biting her lip, and he sighed.

_"Naoto, I have told you this many times, and I will say this as many times as you need to understand it. I love you. Don't ever think that I would cheat on you. If I ever end up with another woman, it will be that our relationship has ended."_

Seeing that she was still a bit unsure, he sat on the bed next to her and drew the bluenette into a hug. They spent the better part of the evening hugging and kissing, and by the end of the day he was sure that Naoto felt a lot better.

**-Break-**

The next day saw the Investigation Team sitting at the Ravenclaw's table once again, and while the students had started by bugging them with questions, Kanji had quickly grown annoyed and told that if they didn't back off, he'd be bashing their heads in. It was at least a comfort that the spell that Dumbledore had used to make them able to understand and use English allowed them to retain the use of the vocabulary they had used, most of them had already been at least able to use small phrases in the morning, before he had again used the spell on them.

What troubled him was that the Beauxbatons Champion had been looking at them for the better part of the meal, looking as if she was trying hard to solve an enigma. Naoto and Yu seemed to have similarly noticed the interest of the stunningly beautiful blonde, so he resolved to ask her why she held such interest in them later.

Taking a glance at the staff's table, he could see Margaret sitting there, engaged in what appeared to be friendly conversation with a very small man, as she ate in way that was both graceful and dignified, not that he expected her to look anything _but_ graceful and dignified.

As he finished his breakfast, he made a small note to find where the food was made, as he was used to Japanese food, which was both nutritious and good for your health, while they were served with food that was drowned in grease, not something he really liked, and seeing the others, he wasn't the only one. Rise even seemed to be glaring at the food, since as a former idol, she had a very strict diet, or so Yu had told him.

Of course, the relative peace of his meal was broken when a group of people strolled inside the Great Hall, causing whispers to break out.

Leading the group was a middle-sized, slightly overweight man wearing a green bowler. Kazuya could easily tell by the way the man carried himself that he had little to no self-confidence, and judging by his nervous glances around, he was also easily frightened. Next to him was walking a stern-looking woman with graying red hair, wearing what looked like protective robes, though they looked well-cared for. Unlike the man next to her, she stood tall and firm, showing that she was confident in her abilities, yet she didn't have an arrogant air either.

Behind those two people were several men and women wearing crimson robes which were obviously geared towards protection and freedom of movement, yet it was clear that they were still far less practical than even the worst mundane gear. Then again, considering the fact these people fought using magic, perhaps there was a reason for that.

He watched as Dumbledore stood up and leisurely strolled for the staff's table to meet the man.

"Minister, Madam Bones, may I inquire as to the reason of your presence in Hogwarts' walls on this fine day?" said the old man as he jovially greeted the group.

"Ah, Dumbledore...I heard that the Potter boy was finally found? Of course, the Ministry had to make sure that it is not merely an imposter, I'm sure you understand...There have also been rumors that the teacher chaperoning these people isn't qualified to look over the Boy-Who-Lived...Unpleasant business, that, if it was true..." rambled the man, while the woman next to him seemed to glare at him.

"I do not know who you are, but I will give you the same warning that I gave Dumbledore: while I may have been known as Harry Potter before, I was adopted and had my name legally changed to Kazuya Dojima. You would do well to call me by that name instead." said Kazuya, as he stood up and walked towards the man, closely followed by the other members of the Investigation Team, though Teddie seemed to be a bit sad to no longer be able to ogle the French Champion.

His words seemed to startle the portly man, as he looked up to meet his eyes, before his gaze flickered towards the other members of his group nervously.

"Mr. Potter, a great honor, Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic, a pleasure..." he said, extending his hand.

However, instead of shaking it, Kazuya glared at him, causing the man to wince and fidget nervously.

"Are you people all deaf? I have _just_ stated that I'd rather be called Kazuya Dojima than Harry Potter, yet not only the old coot but you too disregard my wishes." he growled.

Many whispers could be heard, as the people present couldn't believe how "Harry Potter" was talking to one of the highest authorities in the country.

"Mr. Dojima, I apologize on the Minister's behalf, the fact is that you are quite famous, and most people will probably associate you with the "Boy-Who-Lived", and as such, will call you Potter, I'm afraid." offered the stern-looking woman.

"Then they are idiots. The "Boy-Who-Lived" is a joke, after all even _if_ a baby somehow managed to defeat a Dark Lord at the age of one, it would obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that it would be an _accident_. Unless a baby barely aged enough to understand the basics of life was intelligent enough and in control of his powers to the point of besting adults with decades of experience. But somehow, I don't think I was such a prodigy."

By now many of the students were either protesting loudly or looking at him dumbfounded, though he was happy to see that at least a few people seemed to be pondering on his statement.

"Now, what was that, about making sure I wasn't an imposter?" he asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ah, err... -DOJIMA! , surely you are aware that as the oldest living child of James and Lily Potter, you are the Heir to the Potter name? Surely you understand that we must check your claims?"

"And how would you check my identity? Do you intend to run some DNA tests? Because if that's the case, all you had to do was to ask the school nurse to get some of my blood, there was no need to send a full team of...whoever you might be, along with the Minister of Magic to check on little old me."

It was the woman who answered, as Fudge seemed to be shrinking under his stare. He had to admit that he was curious about how a man this cowardly and without the slightest hint of a backbone had managed to be elected to a position of power. If he had to guess, either there was nobody else for the job, something he doubted, or, and it was more probable, the people in power wanted someone they could easily manipulate to do their bidding.

"While I do not know what a Dee-anne-ay test is, I assure you, Mr. Dojima, that there will be no such thing. All we will need will be to cast a spell on Mr. and Mrs. Potter and you. If you are indeed related, the spell will tell us to which degree.

As for ensuring that your teacher is skilled enough in her field of work, I will be checking one of her classes to make sure everything is right."

He had to shake his head at the ignorance of the magical folk. If they didn't even know about DNA tests, then anyone who somehow knew how to fake the spell's results would be able to claim whatever they wanted. As for Margaret's classes, he was quite sure that by the end of the classes, the woman would be either greatly impressed or positively livid. After all, he was quite sure that she didn't picture deathmatches as acceptable teaching.

"Fine by me. Margaret?" he asked the Velvet Room attendant, who had at some point finished her meal and made her way towards them.

"I see no trouble letting Mrs. Bones attending one of our sessions, however she might need to stay clear of the teaching area." said the blonde, with a smile, as he shuddered, knowing full well what she meant.

**-Break-**

It came as no surprise that the spell used on him, _twice_, returned the expected results. He was recognized as Harry Potter, and something told him that the fact would make it even harder to make people accept he wanted to be called Kazuya Dojima. Rise gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder, and he realized that she might very well understand his situation. As an idol, everyone thought "Risette" was Rise Kujikawa, or rather that Rise Kujikawa was "Risette", while Rise wanted nothing more than to be acknowledged as her own person, and not some airheaded idol. In his case, it was him wanting to be known as his own person instead of as the idealized Savior these people portrayed him to be.

With a sigh, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He wasn't looking forward to his stay.

**-Break-**

Kazuya smirked as his friends, and most noticeably, Amelia Bones, the woman who was supposed to check Margaret's teaching abilities, gawked at the sight around them. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the Potters were there too, though he had asked that Sirius Black, his Godfather, was not allowed to attend yet. He already had trouble accepting the Potters barging into his life, so for now he wanted to be left mostly alone, save for the Potters and his friends.

"Where in Merlin's name are we?" asked Madam Bones, as she wanted to be called.

"Somewhere where my lessons shall not cause undue damage to Hogwarts' property. I assure you, there is nothing to worry about, dear." answered Margaret, who had her everlasting soft smile, though from experience he could tell she was enjoying the woman's reactions.

The witch looked rather affronted that Margaret would call her "dear", but something in the way she spoke seemed to make her hesitate to voice her complaint. He understood perfectly why, after all Margaret, being not human, could for all he knew be as old as mankind. They way she acted, the way she talked spoke of enormous amounts of experience with humans, amounts that nobody could attain in their lifespan.

"Now, before we begin, there is a requirement to your attendance." explained the Velvet Room's attendant. "What you will see here must be kept a secret from everyone but those in the know. The abilities you will see are dangerous, and must be kept secret, lest there be dire consequences for mankind."

Narrowing her eyes, Madam Bones was about to ask why, but she was cut by Lily Potter's voice.

"We could swear an Oath of Secrecy? It would make it impossible to get the information from us, even by magical means, and it would prevent us from slipping."

"Marvelous. May I request this oath from you, your husband as well as Madam Bones?" asked Margaret.

While the Potters and Madam Bones were talking with Margaret, Kazuya looked around the familiar place. They were on some kind of very, _very_ large platform that had its' borders covered in fog, though said fog didn't start before a good thousand feet in either direction. He knew the place rather well, after all it was where he did most of his training with Margaret, after all.

Turning to look at the others, who were looking around curiously, he attracted their attention with a whistle.

"Fair warning, go at her with everything you've got. Trust me, I've had more lessons with her than I care to count, and each time I end up beaten soundly."

The others seemed to take his warning to heart, after all he was among the most battle-happy amongst them, and for him to admit that someone was strong, then they were _strong_.

**-Break-**

The three wizards and witches stood on the side, watching curiously as the group of teenagers (and a bear, though they believed it to be a mere costume), took a formation.

"Oh? Interesting." said Amelia Bones, as she watched the teens, their formation and their stances.

"What is interesting, Amelia?" asked Lily, not understanding why the woman and her own husband seemed so interested all of a sudden.

"They're taking a formation that maximize their freedom of movement, yet at the same time allow them to be close enough to help their friends if need be. Not only that, but from what I can see, they seem to have a lot of experience fighting. They all took positions without having to think about it, which means they're used to fight enough at least that they know where they should stand, where they can do the most damage." explained James, who had been on more than enough battlefields to recognize a coordinated unit when he saw one.

That, and what it implied, caused his wife to widen her eyes and clutch her arms across her chest to prevent herself from running to hug her son. Even if by now, he had made it clear he did not wish to bear their name, not that they couldn't understand. Even if Petunia had never told them just _how_ they had treated Harry, her words were more than enough to know that he must have gone through Hell there.

"I advise you watch closely, for what you will see has so far been reserved to a select few." said the musical voice of the blonde woman who was supposed to teach their son magical combat. Both were thinking: _I seriously doubt it's something I haven't seen before._

How wrong they were.

Their son wasn't the first to act, instead it was the grey-haired teen their son seemed to regard as family. They quirked an eyebrow as they watched him extend his arm, palm facing up. Their curiosity turned to confusion when a spinning blue card appeared, and then their confusion turned to shock when he crushed the card between his fingers.

What happened next, none of them could have guessed, nor would they have believed anyone who would have told them. From the shards of the card, wind came, creating a miniature tornado, thrumming with power. Light coalesced, forming an humanoid shape that had to be at least twice as tall as Hagrid. The being was clad entirely in white, with a coat billowing dramatically in the wind. What appeared to be golden blades were underneath its' two feet, and a silver and black helmet covered its' head, while in its' hands was a blade as long as it was tall.

"Izanagi-no-Okami!"

**-Break-**

Their reactions were various. Kanji was grinning, as was Yosuke, while Chie was roaring in delight. Yukiko had a small smile on her lips, Naoto had the slightest upturn of her lips, Teddie was being his usual excitable self, while Yu was giving his small, victorious smile. And Kazuya gave his most feral smile as his friends went all out.

Teenagers they may be, but they had seen their fair share of battles. They had seen _too much_ battles to not be able to enjoy this one.

**-Break-**

Amelia Bones could say in all honesty that she had seen her fair share of magical battles. She had been an Auror during the First Wizardry War, and pitched battles against groups of Death Eaters were a constant of her life during that time period. It was by fighting against Inner Circle members and coming out of it alive that she gained her reputation as a formidable witch, and several of her fights could be called brutal, with curses, hexes and Dark Magic flying left and right. She had seen spells able to level houses been tossed around by the Dark Lord like they were nothing, and the same from Dumbledore. However both of them were men with decades of experience in magic, geniuses in their fields that none could hope to match save for a select few.

But what she was currently seeing had her so badly shaken she had to sit down. These teenagers, whom Albus had personally told her he suspected were Muggles, were using magic far beyond _anything_ she had ever seen. They made the most heated battles she had experienced look like children throwing colored lights left and right.

She watched as the girl wearing mostly red and black created explosions and geysers of fire that she could feel from a hundred feet away. She stared as the boy in black and hair that reminded her of a Malfoy unleashed thunderbolts that would easily level a good half of Hogsmeade on the woman who claimed to be a teacher, while said woman didn't look even remotely winded by their attacks.

They were all _way beyond even Dumbledore_, she realized. Their power was far beyond anything she could fathom, albeit it seemed mostly battle-oriented, yet even the weakest of them would probably be able to bring an entire army to its' knees. And among them two stood out even more so than their comrades. One was the grey-haired teen, whom she had seen summon several of this humanoid beings, some looking relatively humans, other not so much, and he seemed even more powerful than his friends. The other one was Harry Potter himself, or Kazuya as he wanted to be called. While not in league with the grey-haired boy, he was no slouch either, and something told her that unlike the others, he had yet to reach his full potential.

As she stared at the battle, she had only one thought:_ I hope nobody's stupid enough to piss any of them off._

**-Break-**

The "class" ended an hour later, as the Investigation Team members were laying on the ground, exhausted, save for Kazuya, though even he had trouble standing. Fighting Margaret was, to put it simply, a nightmare, as much like Yu, she could switch Personas, and had an insane resistance to damage. Even when she was hit with elemental attacks that targeted her current weakness, it did little more than scratch her, while her own attacks were powerful enough to send several of them on their knees with but one hit.

Yet despite the obvious difference in power, they had managed to cause a significant amount of damage to the blue clad blonde, and as such felt rather good about themselves. After all, while fighting her was like trying to destroy a mountain with your bare hands, even if you failed, it was pleasant to know you had managed to destroy a significant amount of it while nobody else would have been able to do the same.

Their much-deserved pause was interrupted when the Potters finally got the use of their voice back, James Potter stammering:

"What in the name of Merlin's sagging balls was THAT?!"

Followed by a very enthusiastic squeal from Lily Potter. Obviously, they had different priorities.

**-Break-**

The next week went quite well, though they were still pestered by the occasional curious student, things had gone far smoother since Kanji had broken the nose of a sneering blonde trying to force himself on Yukiko, as well as beaten said blonde's sidekicks black and blue. Of course, that hadn't gone over too well with the teachers, especially the greasy-haired one, who had turned out to be the Head of House and godfather of said blonde. Things had gotten interesting when Naoto, who had been researching everything about these people's legal system had said they would apologize once the blonde had sworn an oath that he didn't intend to force himself on the Amagi heiress. Needless to say, they hadn't needed to apologize for anything.

The Potters had calmed down, and while James was still looking at them as if they were bombs waiting to go off, Lily had certainly grown closer to them, as her natural curiosity and gentleness had endeared her to the group, though Kazuya still kept himself at a respectable distance. He did not want to grow too close to her, as he still felt some amount of anger over the fact that she had basically abandoned him on the word of an old man. Sure, he could understand her reasons, as he had read a lot of books about the First Wizardry War and knew that had she kept him he would have been in danger, but it was the fact that neither she nor James had tried to check on him, instead believing the words of someone else. Nonetheless, he had agreed to meet the Potters and have a dinner with them once they were settled, meaning the next day. He figured he could still try to get to know them before passing judgment.

The other interesting thing had been that after the accident with the blonde, Amelia Bones had popped at Hogwarts with two Aurors and had stated quite clearly that anyone stupid enough to provoke any of the members of the group deserved whatever they got. They figured it had something to do with the fact she had told the team that even the most powerful wizard didn't hold a candle to their destructive power.

Despite that, they were still very careful in their dealings, as they had learnt that there were many a ways to harm them with the use of magic or potions. As such, they took their food in the kitchens, were the House-elves had been taught how to make Japanese dishes, and ate it in the Great Hall. Better safe than sorry. Especially with the way some people were looking at them.

**-Break-**

He knocked on the door of the Potters' quarters and waited. Apparently, Lily, no longer trusting Dumbledore, had taken the post of Muggle Studies' teacher, as a way both to ensure the old man wasn't plotting something in the walls of the castle, as well as a way to keep an eye on her other children, which he would incidentally be meeting in a few moments. The idea was fairly disturbing to him, as he had grown up with Nanako, who was only seven, yet he had no idea of the age of his biological siblings, nor had he any idea of what they liked.

It was a teenage girl who opened. She was around Naoto's height, and had Lily's long, red flaming hair, with an aristocratic face set in an irritated scowl. She was probably twelve or thirteen, a difficult age for both boys and girls, and he could see that under her casual clothes she had slight curves, indicating that she had started puberty early. However, upon seeing him her eyes widened and her face reddened, before she grabbed him by the arm and literally dragged him inside the Potters' quarters.

"Mom! Dad! Har-sorry," she added, looking apologetically at Kazuya, "_Kazuya_'s here!"

He quirked an eyebrow at that. Obviously, she had been raised well, since most of the people in the castle kept calling him either Harry or Potter, Dumbledore chief among them. He decided then and there that he'd be extra nice to this girl, his _sister_, obviously, if only because she had shown more social skills in ten seconds than the other people in the castle in seven _days_.

**-Break-**

November went relatively well, all things considered. He had grown closer to his biological family, though he still hadn't told them the fact that he came from another dimension, nor where his Persona came from, despite Lily's questions. She at least had had the politeness to stop badgering him when he had told her he didn't trust her enough yet, though she had then asked his friends, who, while a little less used to her, had politely but firmly told her that he would tell her when he was ready.

He had taken to spend time with the Investigation Team in the mornings, while he spent the afternoons either researching and practicing spells (the Potters had asked him if he needed a wand, he had answered by levitating the table they were eating on), since it seemed he could use the same type of magic than the wizards and witches by channeling it through his fingers and willing the result, or spending time with his sister and baby brother.

Ivy was twelve and was a Ravenclaw, but she displayed a much more social attitude than most of those in her House, making her rather popular among the students and the staff alike. Sirius was nine, and as such still too young to attend any kind of magical school, but was already showing the tendencies his namesake was known for, namely pranking and being a womanizer (though being so young it was probably mostly unintentional).

The others in the Investigation Team had not been idle either, especially once they had discovered (by accident mind you) that they too could use spells, albeit a bit differently. He didn't need to use his Persona to use magic, but they needed to keep theirs in their heads without manifesting them to be able to channel magic, or _something_ that was close to it. A few of them had drowned themselves in books, especially Naoto, once they realized that quite a few people saw them as nothing more than intelligent animals. There had been a few who had been partial to the idea of challenging the next idiot trying to show their so-called superiority to a magical duel, but seeing as they didn't want others to know about their Personas, they had refrained, though the idiots were still beaten black and blue for the principle.

The Weighing of the Wands had ended with him punching a rather irritating reporter in the face, as she had tried to drag him off while he had clearly told her he did not wish to give an interview. As for why he looked sixteen instead of fourteen, nobody even seemed to pick that up, perhaps because they were so used to live around magic that something minor like the outwards appearance didn't matter.

Then things had gotten interesting when he had found out, rather suspiciously after being invited by the groundskeeper, that the First Task involved Dragons, and that he had to actually take an egg from a nesting mother. It had taken a lot of his not so inconsiderable skill to not simply nuke the people who had set up the Tournament with a _Megidolaon_ or even a _Megidoladyne_. Nonetheless, he had told the other Champions, as he doubted they had half the experience he had with beings that could hurl fire their way, or the resistance to shrug it off.

The Hogwarts' Champion had thanked him, though he doubted the boy had believed him. The Durmstrang Champion had looked as if he had already known, as had the French Champion, though the latter had seemed again surprised at something, before hastily retreating to the carriage the French delegation had come in, blushing although he had no idea why.

**-Break-**

He whistled as he beheld the dragon. Sure, he had seen Shadows, Ameno-Sagiri and Izanami-no-Okami, but it was another thing to see a giant, fire-breathing lizard that had not been created by supernatural means. However, unlike the cheering crowd, he _knew_ with absolute certainty that the dragon was no threat to him. Tsukuyomi had long since grown strong enough that any kind of elemental attack was nullified, even fire as strong as the one this beast could breath.

"OUR LAST CHAMPION, HARRY POTTER, WILL NOW FACE THE HUNGARIAN HORNTAIL!"

Disregarding the dragon, he looked upon the stands. In the sea of faces, he could see many cheering, and quite a few of the students in green-trimmed robes sneering or smiling malevolently at him, thinking that he was done for. The fact that he had no wand, something that had been published in the rag they called a newspaper, seemed to make them think he was powerless. They were probably thinking that he was going to die, not that he cared much for their opinion.

He finally reached the part of the stands were his biological family stood, his parents cheering him on, as were his sisters. Next to them, the Investigation Team were looking at him confidently, knowing that there was little chance of him being more seriously wounded than he had been during their explorations of the TV World, and even if by some stroke of bad luck it happened, Yukiko was more than powerful enough to heal him completely. There had been _one _time when Yu had almost lost his leg, but thanks to the Amagi Heiress, it had taken mere seconds before it was as good as new.

With a cheerful wave towards his friends, he turned to face the dragon. He did not want to show his Persona, nonetheless, he could use skills without having to resort to it. A snap of his fingers later, the dragon found itself propelled against the wall of the arena, courtesy of his most powerful wind spell. Before the giant reptile could get back on its' feet, he followed by a powerful ice skill that encased the dragon in a giant icicle, while the crowd was eerily silent, watching him dominate a beast that from what he had read, usually took around twenty dragon-handlers to take down. He had done so alone, in less than a minute, and without even using a wand or any kind of verbalized magic.

Walking to the nest, he grabbed the golden egg, and without missing a beat, exited the arena, though he sent a fireball towards the icicle, freeing the dragon that tumbled and fell as if drunk, the reptile rendered lethargic by the cold.

_One down, two to go._

**-Break-**

The next day saw Kazuya looking curious as he, as well as Naoto, waited by the shore of the Black Lake. The French Champion had asked to meet him there, and seeing that he had planned to spend some time with Naoto, he had asked her if she wanted to come. For some reason, she hadn't liked the idea of him being alone with the French girl. It was funny to see that despite it being a little under a month since they had arrived, nobody had guessed Naoto was female yet, and none of their friends had felt the need to broadcast it. After all, if people guessed her gender wrong, why should they correct them?

"I apologize for ze lateness, _Monsieur_ Dojima." started Fleur, only to pause as she noticed Naoto. "And you are, if I am not wrong, _Monsieur _Shirogane?"

"Indeed, a pleasure, Miss Delacour." said Naoto, as she gave a small greeting bow.

"May I ask w'y you are 'ere? Do not get me wrong, I do not dislike you, but ze message I left waz for _Monsieur_ Dojima."

At that, he sighted.

"Call me Kazuya, calling me Mr. makes me feel old. As for why s-_he_ is here, I had planned to spend some time with my friends, so I brought him with me. Nothing in your message hinted as to the fact that you wanted to talk about something private, so I saw nothing wrong with that. Of course, if it _is_ private, well, I'll ask him to leave us, of course. I hope you don't mind, Naoto?"

The bluenette simply shook her head.

"No, I don't mind. I'll see you later."

However, as she was about to leave, the blonde stopped her.

"No, don't leave. It iz not really private, you can stay. Actually, you may be able to answer some of my questions."

Sitting down, she motioned for them to do the same, as she waved her wand around, causing the sounds that reached them to be muffled.

"I put up a few privacy charms. I do not want ozzers to 'ear w'at I 'ave to say. Now w'at do you know about Veelas?"

"Not much. I haven't gotten the time to read much outside of the standard spell books, unfortunately. Naoto?"

"Not much either. Veelas are a near-human race, one that has been hunted for a long time to be used as either concubines, or..." she spat the last words, "...sex slaves for rich Purebloods."

"Zat is a good beginning. I am part-Veela, my mozzer and sister too. As part-Veela, we 'ave ze ability to use Passionfyre, to partially transform into avians, and, unfortunately, it also means we 'ave ze Veela Allure.

Ze Allure is somezing we can control, to a degree, but we cannot fully suppress it. You see, anyone wiz an attraction to ze female body 'it by ze Allure will find zemselves incredibly attracted to ze Veela, trying to impress 'er, and if 'it wiz too much, ze person might lose control and try to 'ave zeir way wiz ze Veela, or part-Veela, right then and zere. Zat, wiz ze fact that Veela and part-Veela are naturally beautiful, iz ze reason w'y we 'ave been 'unted for centuries as concubines and sex slaves.

Now, my question is simple: 'ow come you, and your friends, are not affected by ze Allure?"

Now that, they hadn't expected.

"Don't have a clue. Are you sure we aren't affected by this...Allure?"

Fleur gave him an affronted look.

"_Bien sûr_ I am sure! I 'ave been using it on you since we started talking!"

At that, Naoto tensed.

"You mean to tell us that you have been using the Allure, something that was supposed to cause men to flock to you like moths to a flame, on _us_?" she asked, coldly.

Kazuya looked at her, a little perplexed by her sudden frigid behavior, before understanding dawned on him. She was afraid of it affecting her, to lose control.

Incidentally, he was wrong, but he couldn't know that. She was actually afraid of losing him, not losing control, even if it _did_ play a part in her reaction.

"I apologize, but I wanted to be sure. You 'ave to understand, men able to resist the Allure are very, _very_ rare, and usually a Veela or part-Veela w'o finds one will start pursuing him with her affections, so long as 'e is worthy."

As she smiled, she started to lean towards Kazuya, who, upon realizing that she was openly flirting with him, in front of Naoto no less, decided to put a stop to her actions.

"Miss Delacour, while I'm flattered that a beautiful girl like you seems to be interested in me, I have to respectfully decline. I already have a girlfriend, and I will _not_ cheat on her, no matter what you say."

At his words, Fleur smiled, and her gaze swept to Naoto.

"Zen, 'ow about you, _Monsieur_ Shirogane?"

There was a moment of silence, before Naoto blushed beet red and let out an undignified squawk, while Kazuya started to laugh so hard tears leaked from his eyes. The French witch paused at that, confused.

"Ahahahaha!...Naoto...You should go for it...Ahahahahahahaaaaa! Oh Kami, my stomach...Don't worry, I swear I won't be jealous...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Kazuya!" shrieked the bluenette, apparently mortified.

Staring at the pair in bewilderment, Fleur looked at a loss. After a little while, Kazuya calmed down and wiped his tears, though he was still chuckling.

"No offense, Fleur, but I doubt that Naoto likes you like that. She is too attracted to my dashing good looks for that."

"Kazuya!"

Blinking, Fleur focused on the bluenette, looking at her intently, trying to understand what Kazuya meant. As she finally understood, the French Champion was openly gaping at the two.

"You are a _girl_? But...I zought..."

"That she was a boy? Don't worry, so far I've been the only one able to tell she was a girl, the others learnt about it later, so don't feel too bad about it.

Anyway, I'm afraid that all the boys in our group our taken, save for Teddie. And considering that he's a complete Casanova, I doubt you'd want to try dating him."

"A shame. Do you zink we could still be friends? Most boys spend zeir time drooling w'en zey are around me. I could do wiz some company sometimes."

At that, Kazuya shrugged, and Naoto simply nodded. They themselves didn't see anything wrong about spending some time with her, so long as she didn't try to use her Allure on them.

**-Break-**

The Yule Ball was an event that had taken the Investigation Team a little by surprise, as none of them knew how to dance, which prompted Lily and James Potter to become dance teachers for them. It had been rather funny when James had asked Kazuya which one of the girls he would be taking, since neither he nor Lily had learnt or guessed that Naoto was a girl yet. Seeing Kazuya point at Naoto with a smirk had made the man stumble, before composing himself and telling him seriously that he would not judge him for his preferences.

It had been a very red Naoto who had told the pair that she was a girl, while the other members of the Investigation Team laughed at seeing others learning about the crossdressing girl's true gender. Of course, James, being an overly grown child, couldn't help but ask the wrong question:

"But...if you're a girl...why are you so...so..."

"So?" she asked, looking a bit confused.

"So flat?" finished the Potter patriarch, causing a deafening silence.

A few of the boys present winced at seeing Lily Potter starting to get red, they knew he was in for a very long lecture, but her build-up was interrupted by Kazuya.

"Trust me, she is _far_ from flat. I'd know." he said, putting an arm around her shoulder, while she looked at him with a bewildered, and very red, face.

"Wha...But...Did you take precautions, at least?" asked a bewildered Lily, causing Kazuya to redden, while Naoto looked about to pass out from embarrassment as they realized what the two adults were thinking.

"Not like that! We didn't _do_ anything, but I've seen her in a female uniform, and she looks damn good in it, that's all!" quickly countered the Persona-user. "A-anyway, why don't we start the lesson?"

**-Break-**

It was a week later, two weeks before the Ball, that something happened that broke the relative peace the group had known since arriving at Hogwarts. It had gotten increasingly obvious that all the members of the Investigation Team, save for Teddie, were quite popular among the students of the three schools, seeing as quite a few asked the girls to go to the Ball with them, while the boys could swear that a gaggle of girls were following them everywhere, even Naoto falling prey to their attentions. Luckily, until that point, it had simply taken the girls to explain they were already taken to dissuade the boys, seeing that Amelia Bones had stated quite clearly that all of them were able to rival her best Aurors in terms of combat ability. The boys had it slightly worse, as they couldn't shake the girls off, since most of them seemed to think they would change their minds and go with them if they managed to seduce them.

The accident had happened in the morning, during one of the breakfasts, as they were eating at the Ravenclaw table with a few of them chatting with Fleur, who seemed to be happy that several boys could talk to her without being reduced to drooling idiots. As they were eating, a boy around sixteen wearing the Slytherin colors had approached Yukiko.

"Can I help you?" politely asked the Amagi Heiress.

"Yes, I want you to be my date at the Yule Ball. Even if you're a Mudblood, you're easy on the eyes, and you have the good attitude for a Pureblood concubine. If you're lucky, I may even ask my father to draw up a mistress contract for you."

There was a deafening silence to answer his statement, and the air had grown thick with tension. All the members of the Investigation Team had learnt quite a bit about the customs of the Wizardry World, as well as the terms used to "classify" the magical folk. They were as such very well aware that the boy facing Yukiko had just called her, in mundane terms, a bitch, and his attitude suggested that he thought he was doing her a favor by _allowing_ her to go to the Ball with him.

Now, there was one thing the members of the Team would not let pass, it was someone belittling, insulting, or harming one of their comrades. The only reason the inconsiderate (and probably highly dumb) boy hadn't yet been reduced to a mess of bruises, was because they were holding Kanji back, since they all knew that Yukiko had grown from their adventures, and would no doubt put the boy in his place.

"No _thank you_. I already have a date for the Ball.", she said, her face gaining a frosty edge, "There is also the fact that you insulted me, and yet expected me to accept your offer. I do not know where you were raised, but I will not accept to be insulted. Now, please leave, before my boyfriend loses his patience."

With that, she turned her back to the boy, clearly dismissing him. For most people, it would have been a signal to leave, with haste considering how quite a few people were glaring at him, yet it appeared that either this boy was particularly thick, or that he did not possess survival instincts. Instead of leaving, he whipped his wand out, snarling.

"I will not be dismissed by a Mudblood! I, Adrian Pucey, challenge you to a Wizard's Duel!"

**-Break-**

The students of all three schools had gathered to witness the duel, which, to Yukiko's request, was to be held outside. Many thought that she had made that choice because it allowed for more battle options, since in their minds there were more objects to transfigure, and so on. Only Margaret, the Investigation Team, and the Potters knew why she had asked for that. A quick discussion between the members of the team about the possible consequences of Yukiko losing the duel had made it clear that she would have to use her Persona, since she was nowhere near proficient enough in the use of spells from this world to win. As such, it was best to hold the duel outside, after all destroying the Great Hall with Amaterasu was probably not a very good idea.

Yukiko was understandably quite nervous, not because she was afraid of losing, that wasn't even a remote possibility if she used her Persona, but instead because she was afraid of accidentally killing her opponent. After all, Amaterasu's weakest fire spell was still more than powerful enough to fry him, and as such, she would need to target her opponent's surroundings, since a single direct hit would kill him. At least if that happened, it would be within the duel's rules, and there would be no consequences for her, but they had all agreed that killing him on purpose was not an option. If he died, it would be by accident.

The students stood a few tens of feet away, most of them not understanding why they had to be so far away from the duel, since during most duels, they could stand twenty feet away at most, yet here they were forced to be so far away by this foreign, blonde teacher. Barriers had been erected, courtesy of the staff, despite Dumbledore trying to forbid the duel, which had ended up with the Potters and Filius Flitwick, one of the teachers, to point out he couldn't do so. The rules about a Wizard's duel were clear, once accepted, it had to be held, no matter how unhappy it made the Headmaster.

Once the two contestants' weapons were examined (Adrian's wand, and, to the crowd's surprise, Yukiko's _Boundless sea_, the two fans she had used to fight her most powerful enemies), they were placed twenty feet away from each other.

"So, _Mudblood_, quacking in your shoes, aren't you?" taunted the Slytherin. "Don't worry, I won't be scarring that pretty face of yours. Once I've won, I want to be able to have some _fun_ with you!"

"Are you finished?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if you were finished with your childish taunts. If so, then how about we begin?"

Her utter confidence seemed to have rattled Adrian a fair bit, but he quickly composed himself.

"Fine by me! I'll show how a Pureblood fights!"

"Begin!" shouted Flitwick, who was acting as the referee for the match.

"Hear me, Amaterasu!" shouted the Amagi Heiress, gracefully bringing her fan down to shatter the blue Tarot card that had appeared in front of her.

Wind picked up. It created a tornado, a swirling vortex of power as blue light coalesced into a shape. A smooth, faceless, and definitively female glowing shape took form. A silver, bladed veil connected her two arms, as one held a katana, and the other it's scabbard.

As it materialized, it pointed the katana it held towards its' foe, as if to warn him.

"Forfeit now, and I shall not harm you." said Yukiko, her face a mask of cold fury.

Adrian was shaking with fear. Despite not being that powerful as a wizard, he could still feel the magic in the air, and he could tell that whatever that thing behind the Mudblood was, it was powerful, as in, hundreds of time more powerful than Dumbledore powerful. Yet despite that, his price as a Pureblood was on the line, and as such he could not, and would not forfeit.

"_Bombarda!"_

The spell flew towards Yukiko, yet she did not move. As it came close, Amaterasu simply swatted it away, as one would an annoying fly. Then it pointed it's katana towards Adrian, and immediately, a giant fireball appeared, so hot that the crowd of students could feel it from where they were.

"This is your last chance. Forfeit, or face the consequences of your actions."

Needless to say, Adrian chose to forfeit. He may be prideful, but there was no way he was going to fight someone who could swat away a fully-powered Bombarda like it was nothing!

**-Break-**

From there on, nobody tried to insult any of the members of the Investigation Team anymore, though they had to answer a few questions from some hooded people called Unspeakables. Apparently their powers greatly interested them, since they researched anything that had to do with magic. Even Dumbledore tried to coerce the source of their power out of them, mentioning the "Greater Good", but they told him that there was no way for him to replicate their powers, which was after all true, since wizards didn't have access to the TV World. And even if they did, odds were that they would be killed by their Shadows, since even with magic, there was little hope for them to stand against a Shadow.

Eventually, the hype died down, but now the other students treated the Investigation Team with respect in most cases, and with fear in the others. There were a few rumors going around about them being Dark Wizards and Witches, but frankly they didn't care overly much, so long as they were left alone.

**-Break-**

Eventually, the day of the Ball came. The boys were all wearing tuxedos, with some variations here and there. Even Teddie was wearing a tuxedo, specially tailored for him by Kanji. They were all standing in the corridor leading to their rooms, since by some kind of unspoken agreement, the girls had all decided to claim the bathrooms for themselves. Then again, considering the possible results, they were all for it.

The first to come out was Rise, which was quite understandable as she _was_ a former idol, meaning she had to know quite a few tricks about makeup and hairstyles. She was wearing a dark blue, backless dress with a slit on the side that stopped a little below her hips, allowing a clear view of her pale, long legs. Her hair was no longer in her usual ponytail, instead made into a complex hairstyle that was reminiscent of a flower. To put it simply, she was _beautiful_, and her perfect smile showing perfectly white teeth was the icing on the cake.

_"So, what do you think, Yu-senpai?"_

The grey-haired teen's answer was to kiss her senseless, while the other males, save for Teddie, looked elsewhere with smirks on their faces.

_"A-ano, Kanji-kun?"_ asked a timid voice, causing their eyes to focus on Yukiko.

Instead of a dress, she was wearing a beautiful red kimono with a black obi, as well as the traditional Japanese sandals and white socks. She wore simple make up, that accentuated her ethereal and fragile beauty, while her black hair had a beautiful hairpin keeping it in place. If Rise was the image of an idol, she was the incarnation of the Yamato Nadeshiko, the traditional Japanese beauty.

_"Eh...Uh...You...look really good, Yukiko-san!"_ said Kanji, once he managed to recover from the shock, causing her to blush bright red.

With two of the couples already ready for the Ball, Yosuke sighed.

_"Man, I'm kinda jealous of those two, you know?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"Well, don't get me wrong, I love Chie, but sometimes I feel like I'm dating a guy... I have no problems with her, but sometimes I guess I think "What would it be like if she was more feminine?", stuff like that, you know. I'm sure she'd be drop-dead gorgeous if she tried, instead of being just a beauty."_

_"For that, lover boy, you get a kiss."_ said a female voice from behind them, causing June's Prince to stiffen.

_"Aaaaah, Chie, its' nothing like that! It's...just...wow."_ started to apologize the teen, trailing off as he took in his date.

Chie, in sharp contrast of her usual boyish style, was wearing a traditional Chinese dress, a Cheongsam, that showed most of her legs. The dress was the same green her eternal jacket was, with yellow trimmings and flowery designs. But the most shocking difference was that instead of her usual mid-long hair, her brown hair was now long and made into a ponytail that reached her mid-back. All in all, she was no longer a tomboyish beauty, she was the very embodiment of a _femme fatale_.

"_Chie-chan, you look marvelous."_ said Kazuya, honestly awed by the change.

"_Thank you, Dojima-kun. Yosuke, how come you weren't the first to compliment me?"_

_"I think he's simply too stunned by your beauty. Let me check for a moment."_

With that, Kazuya hit Yosuke behind the head, causing the teen to blink and glower at him.

"_Dude, that hurt!"_

_"Yeah, but your girlfriend is waiting for your opinion on her dress. You might want to say something instead of gaping like an idiot."_

With that, he left Yosuke talk to Chie, as she was after all his girlfriend and not his own. Though he had to admit that this much more feminine Chie was a definite improvement in the looks department. She was still very much the same at heart, not trying to act overly feminine, rather she had simply a more feminine appearance.

However, now that he was the only one whose girlfriend hadn't finished preparing, he was starting to grow a bit nervous. He knew he was supposed to open the Ball with the other Champions, and while he didn't care much for what the Wizards thought about him, he frankly didn't want to make his friends look bad, after all he represented their group.

"_Kazuya-sensei? You look beary stressed."_

_"I am, Teddie. I just hope Naoto won't take much longer, otherwise...Teddie?"_

The usually chattering Teddie was looking at something behind him with his mouth open, and sparkling eyes. A bit confused at the bear's attitude, he turned to see what could have cause the team's mascot to act like that, and widened his eyes at the sight.

Naoto had apparently finished getting ready. And quite frankly, the results were well worth the wait. She was wearing a black dress similar to Rise's, with silver trimmings around her chest and the side of the dress. Said chest was no longer squashed by the bindings the usually wore, showing that she had more than a fair amount of cleavage, while the side of the dress allowed to see her legs, though unlike Rise, she did not wear high-heels. The dress did not cover her back, and the slit showing her legs stopped at the middle of her hips, which was far more provocative than anything he would have expected of her. However, what startled him the most was the deep blue hair that he remembered sliding his fingers through when it was short, now framing his girlfriend's face beautifully and falling to her mid-back. Unlike the other girls who had trapped their hair in elaborate hairstyles, hers was allowed to fall freely, creating a magnificent, azure veil. She was, in a word, _divine_.

"_N-Naoto...Wow... You're beautiful..."_

The bluenette blushed beet red, but seemed to be extremely pleased with his reaction, though she was also eyeing him appraisingly.

"_Thank you, Kazuya. S-Should we go?"_

**-Break-**

The Ball went quite well, though their group got more than a few stares, between how good the girls looked and how the boys presented, quite a few people openly ogled them. Nonetheless, they didn't care, and Kazuya and Naoto showed they had made their dance lessons count as they made more than a few couple jealous by how good-looking they were and the elegance they displayed while dancing.

They even got the pleasure to see James Potter gaping at the sight of the very feminine Naoto. Obviously, he had still had his doubts about her gender, doubts that had now probably disappeared. After all, someone with a bust _that_ size was clearly female, no matter how you looked at it. Kazuya did make a point to glare at any of the people who ogled her chest for too long. Naoto, despite her usual calm demeanor, wasn't someone who was used to be ogled as a girl, and it was something that had to make her uncomfortable, so he did his best to make it bearable for her.

He shared a few dances with other girls and ladies, of course. Rise, Yukiko and Chie were the first, as they were the closest to him after Naoto, no matter what the Potters would like. He did share a dance with his biological mother, though his sister was still too young to attend the Ball. He got more than a few jealous stares when he was asked for a dance by Fleur, since she had rejected all the offers from other male students. She had been a very enjoyable dance partner, and she had commented that while she did regret that he was taken, as were his friends, that she thought he and Naoto were a very cute couple, and that she hoped they'd be happy together.

So, as the music continued, he continued to dance.

**-Break-**

"_Kazuya? I wanted to ask you, what do you intend to do once the Tournament is finished?"_ asked Naoto, as she rested her head on his shoulder. They had gone outside to enjoy some peace, without having to deal with all the stares and attention.

"_I'll be going back with you."_ he answered, stroking her hair.

Margaret had been quite clear about the fact that she could take them home, but that it would be a one-time offer. They couldn't go back and forth between dimensions at will.

"_Are you sure? Your family is here."_

_"My _biological_ family is here. And while I love my siblings, I miss Nanako and Dad. James and Lily made their choice when they gave me to Dumbledore, and I made mine. I won't abandon Nanako and Dad, they need me more than the Potters do, and Dad and Mom were the ones to take me in and treat me like a son. And I have you. I will never let you go, and I certainly won't ask you to stay here."_

At those words, Naoto smiled, and, pulling away from his shoulder, looked at him with moist eyes. He never ceased to amaze her. Here he was, he had found his biological family, a world where polygamy was legal and where he had numerous beautiful women that would gladly do anything he'd want, a world where he wouldn't have to hide his powers, and yet he would trade everything to stay with her, with his friends, and with his family. She loved him for that, for his ability to put others before himself, for his unshakable resolve to do anything to keep his loved ones happy. He made her feel happy, he made her feel alive and complete. After meeting him, becoming his girlfriend, she had felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, as if, after countless years since her parents' deaths, she could finally be happy again.

He was everything she could had wished for in a man, intelligent yet humble, with a strong sense of justice, and willing to do what was right over what was easy, something that most teenagers unfortunately lacked. He let her take their relationship at her own pace, always understanding, always there when she had a bad day, never pressuring her to go beyond what she was ready for. She knew that he could have pushed for them to get more intimate, to have sex, yet the subject had been breached only once, and when she had told him she wasn't ready, he had understood. And by that, she meant he had accepted her words, hadn't made a face or complained in any way. There had been no change in his attitude, nothing to show he had been lying.

"_Kazuya?"_

_"Mmmm?"_

_"I love you."_

They spent the remainder of the evening in silence, watching the stars.

**-Break-**

The day of the Second Task arrived, and Kazuya was standing on the platform on the Black Lake, waiting for the others to get ready. He was wearing a pair of simple, black swimming trunks, with a coat covering his body, since unlike wizards, he didn't use a Warming Charm to warm himself up. That and he was quite sure that his collection of scars would cause quite a few unwanted questions. Oh, he didn't have _that _much, only those that he did have were quite noticeable. There was the one on his stomach, where Namatame had stabbed him, on his side, a burn he had gotten by shielding Naoto from an attack she hadn't seen while they were trying to get Adachi, and finally, he had a few large scratch marks on his back, made by one of those Shadows that looked like lions when they had first encountered them.

However, right now he was wondering where Naoto was, the others had told him they hadn't seen her either since the previous evening. While it wasn't unheard of for her to stay awake very late to do some research, usually she wasn't that hard to find. But the more he thought about it, the more he had an inkling that what he would have to recover from the Black Lake's depths would be a who, and that it would be Naoto. Seeing Fleur nervously wringing her hands and looking at the lake, he was quite sure he was right.

He was quite sure that Naoto would not have agreed for this, so he resolved to get to the bottom of the matter once he had gotten her out of there.

**-Break-**

Kazuya looked around him, worried. Thanks to the Gillyweed, he was able to breathe underwater, and after spending several afternoons scooting the Black Lake's depths to know where he should look for the merpeople's village, it hadn't taken him long to get to the hostages. As he had expected, there was Naoto, a Asian-looking girl that he remembered as the Hogwarts' Champion date for the Yule Ball, another girl with brown, bushy hair that he had seen fairly often with the Durmstrang Champion, and a young girl, probably no older than ten that bore a startling resemblance to Fleur.

Had he been sure nothing was going to go wrong, he would have grabbed Naoto and taken her back to the shore immediately, however he was worried about Fleur's sister. Veelas were beings of fire and air, and being underwater weakened them considerably, especially when the water was just short of freezing. Fleur herself could have used warming charms on herself, but not her sister.

The other Champions had already gotten their hostages, one looking like a half-shark had gotten the bushy-haired girl, while the Hogwarts' Champion had what appeared to be some kind of bubble around his head. However, it was nearing the hour, and Fleur still hadn't come to get her sister. Deciding he had waited long enough, he went to get the little girl, only for several armed merpeople to stop him.

It took him a bit of gesturing, but once they realized that indeed, the other Champion probably wasn't going to come, they reluctantly let him get the girl. He was quite sure that it was only the fact they had somehow perceived he had a Persona that made them agree, but he still gave them a nod of thanks before swimming up. No use in antagonizing them unnecessarily.

As soon as he broke the surface of the water, Naoto and the little girl seemed to awake, his girlfriend looking a bit startled.

"_Kazuya? Where am I?"_

_"In the Black Lake, you were my hostage for the Second Task. Didn't they tell you that before putting you to sleep?"_

She only shook her head.

"_No, Dumbledore-san asked for me, and then I remember waking up here. Who is she?"_ she asked, looking at the little girl with them who was shivering violently.

"_Fleur's sister, I think. But she looks like she's suffering from hypothermia. Wait a moment."_

Not caring about what people would say, he summoned Tsukuyomi, who grabbed the three of them before flying towards the platform.

**-Break-**

Needless to say, the moment they reached the platform, Fleur embraced her sister while the school's nurse cast warming charms on Naoto and her.

"Fleur, you may want to warm you sister up, I'm quite sure she'd like to have you give her a hug. Now excuse me, I need to have a few words with Dumbledore."

"I understand. Zank you, Kazuya. I will not forget zis, you saved my sister."

"It was a pleasure. I wasn't sure you were going to show up, so I took her with me, since I'm quite sure that Veela don't agree with freezing water."

The French Champion simply gave him a nod, while he strolled towards the judges, who were apparently arguing about something. As Dumbledore spotted him, he gave him a grandfatherly smile and beckoned him closer.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. Perhaps you could..." was all he could say, before clutching his groin in pain, courtesy of Kazuya, who had just kicked him there, only to follow with a punch to the face, which clearly broke his nose.

Disregarding the people shouting around him and pointing their wands on him, he grabbed the old man by the collar and lifted him until they were eye-to-eye.

"One, it's Mr. _Dojima_. Two, I would very much like to hear why my girlfriend wasn't asked if she agreed to be a hostage. And three, who the FUCK had the bright idea to put an underage part-Veela underwater? I'm not a specialist, but she looked like she was going to die from hypothermia!"

"I was ze one to agree for Gabrielle to be used as a 'ostage. I was given reassurances by Dumbleedore zat zere would be special measures taken for 'er safety." said the giant woman, Madame Maxime if he was right. Though she seemed to be glaring at Dumbledore too, since she had seen just how badly the little girl was shivering.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't see or feel anything different around her, and considering how much she was shivering, I'd say that there was nothing. Anyway, I'm waiting, old man."

"Mr. Dojima, release the Headmaster this instant! You are lucky you are not a student here, otherwise you'd be serving detention with me for the remainder of the year. I have never seen such outrageous behavior!" growled McGonnagal

"FUCK. deserved no less, and he still hasn't explained why Naoto wasn't even _told_ she was going to be my hostage!"

"That...was because we couldn't find your teacher. Since she was the only one with the authority to agree on your friend's behalf, and that she was missing, I was the next one in line to decide who to use for your hostage." pointed out a wheezing Dumbledore.

"That has to be the worse bullshit I ever heard! She's _sixteen_, for Kami's sake! You'd think she'd be old enough to make her own decisions!

This is a warning, Dumbledore: stay away from her, stay away from my friends, or I will make you wish you're _dead_." he growled, before pushing the old man and leaving, not caring about the glares of the other adults.

**-Break-**

The last months before the Third Task were tense, as Kazuya's actions towards Britain's most famed figure hadn't endeared him to the masses. Many whispered that his and his friends' power to summon Personas were the result of Dark rituals, and that Teddie was actually a demon in disguise. Needless to say, the Investigation Team was appalled by the level of stupidity the magical population could display, all that because an old man believed to be the next coming of Merlin or such nonsense had been taken down a few pegs because he had made a mistake.

Margaret had agreed with Kazuya's actions, though she had stressed he could have handled the situation better. Of course, the fact that she had told Dumbledore that she supported her student in his actions hadn't endeared her to the magical populace either, not that she cared, or should care. After all, her time in this world, as well as their own was soon coming to an end, and they all knew it.

They had all reached a rather impressive level of skill in using spells from this world, and had even learnt to Apparate, as they called the strange self-teleportation ability the Wizards possessed. They had all agreed it was a very handy tool to have, though it didn't work for international travel, not that they cared much, Naoto had already taught them how to create Portkeys, those very practical objects, after finding a book on them and their uses.

At least the Potters supported them, as did the Delacours, Fleur's family, when they had met them. Fleur's father actually told him that if it had been him, he would have _removed_ a certain appendage from the old man and shoved it down his mouth for hurting his daughter. Said daughter had taken the habit of blushing bright red whenever she saw him, which was a rather cute sight. Gabrielle was actually nine, and wouldn't be starting her magical education at Beauxbatons for another two years, but her parents had already begun to teach her the basics. She was a bundle of joy, and the girls of the Investigation Team loved to spend time with her, as did Teddie, since she loved cuddling with the "cute bear".

During that last month, they also strove to look at what the Wizardry world had to offer in the domains that interested them. Yu spent his time in deep discussions with Poppy Pomfrey, the school nurse, discussing the finest points of the art of healing others, while Rise learnt as much as she could from Apolline Delacour, Fleur's mother, about politics and using her reputation to push for changes in the society. Kanji had purchased (thanks to the money lent to them by Kazuya, who had gotten it from the Potters) books about how magical clothes were made and charms to make them more resistant and comfortable. Yukiko spent a lot of time with him, though she had purchase a non-magical book about designs and fashion. Chie, since nobody knew martial arts in the magical world (at least in Britain), had taken to give a few courses to the Potter children, while Yosuke had asked James to teach him how to manage businesses, since the Potters had quite a few shops to their name. Naoto, for her part, spent several afternoons with Madam Bones discussing law, which gave the stern woman quite a few ideas to implement. Kazuya, for his part, had spent his time training his magic and learning as much as he could for the Third Task.

However, as time went by, Kazuya couldn't help but feel an uncomfortable feeling of dread rise inside him. While nowhere near as bad as the one he had felt when they had gone to fight against Izanami, he was still sure that something bad was going to happen before the end of the year. As such, he spent countless hours reading, learning, and training in spells to make sure he was ready for anything coming his way.

The fact that the Third Task was going to be in a maze, without any possibility of immediate outside help, made it a prime target for anything unsavory. After all, what better place to kill or abduct someone than a maze filled with traps and monsters?

**-Break-**

Kazuya frowned as he took in the cup. Everything had been too easy, _way_ too easy. He had encountered maybe three traps and two magical beasts, not nearly as much as he had expected. Then there was the fact that Victor Krum had somehow been put under the Imperius and had been using the Cruciatus on Fleur. At least she wouldn't suffer from the usual aftereffects thanks to Tsukuyomi.

But he was quite sure that taking the cup would put him in danger. Everything so far seemed to have been done to make victory easy for him, and that meant that whoever had manipulated Krum and destroyed the traps _wanted_ him to take the cup. Unfortunately, if he didn't take the cup, he wouldn't know who or what wanted to get him.

_Well, let's go then._

As he took the cup, he disappeared.

**-Break-**

At the precise moment Kazuya disappeared, the entire Investigation Team, as well as Margaret, turned to look at Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore, was this supposed to happen?" asked an ever-composed Margaret.

Frowning, the old man shook his head.

"I am afraid not. I suspected that something like this would happen since the day young Harry's name was drawn from the Goblet, but alas, I had no proof, nor did I have any way of changing what the last Task was."

"And there is no way to find where Kazuya was taken?" asked a worried-looking Yukiko.

"I'm afraid not. Portkeys are supposed to be traceable, but the Ministry refused to implement such a measure, as many Pureblood families use portkeys to travel. They feared it could be used to track them."

"So, to put it simply, someone bribed the Minister to have him reject anything that could implement such a possibility?" said Yu, who was frowning, looking at Fudge, who had taken a nasty puce color when bribes had been evoked.

"Now see here, I am the Minister of Magic, and you will not talk to me like that!"

"We don't give a shit about who ya are! What we want is to get Kazuya back, ya damn fat bastard!" roared Kanji.

"Aurors!" called Fudge, who was struggling against the teen's grip.

"I don't think so, Fudge. Kanji, was it? Mind putting him down? Molesting him won't bring Kazuya back. For now, we should try to find if there is any way to track the portkey, starting from where it vanished." said a grim James Potter, already walking towards the labyrinth.

He was quickly followed by the Investigation Team, but as they neared the labyrinth, the giant screens that had been monitoring the Champions' progress flared to life once again.

**-Break-**

Kazuya appeared in the middle of a graveyard, a little disoriented, but otherwise fine. Looking around, his mind calmly analyzed the situation, taking in the scenery and idly noting how appropriate it was for what would probably be a showdown of epic proportions, though he really doubted it would be anywhere near the level of the showdown with Izanami.

He wasn't a fool, he had read enough about this world to have a fairly good idea of who could have been behind his abduction, it was either the followers of that Dark Lord, Voldemort, or Voldemort himself. Unlike the idiots that populated the Wizardry World, he knew the man was too intelligent and obsessed with power to not have taken measures to protect himself from death, and since no corpse had been found after that Halloween night...

Feeling the hair on his neck stand up, he threw himself to the side, avoiding a spell that collided with a tombstone. He was about to call Tsukuyomi when the worst pain he had ever felt wracked his brain, causing him to fall on the ground and scream as he felt spears of pure pain pierce his mind. Luckily, or unluckily, whoever had kidnapped him saw fit to stun him, so his world went black.

**-Break-**

He woke up an undefined amount of time later, tied to a tombstone, with his head throbbing in pain and a deep gash on his right arm, not that it particularly bothered him. He had gotten worse from Shadows, and he had already been stabbed in the stomach once, so he could bear it quite easily.

He was distracted by the sound of a male voice, calling with an imperious tone:

"Robe me."

Looking around, he found that there was some kind of huge cauldron in the middle of the graveyard, with a chubby man prostrated in front of a tall figure wearing dark robes, while the kneeling man clutched a stump.

What followed was rather confusing, at least for Kazuya, as the tall man proceeded to somehow call his minions, several of them appearing straight away, their bodies concealed in dark robes, and wearing skull masks. He then proceeded to create a silvery arm for the chubby man, before finally turning to look at him.

"Aah, yes, _Harry Potter_, or as my servant told me you like to be called, Kazuya Dojima. It is such a shame, seeing the Heir of one of Britain's oldest families abandon his name like that."

"That's rich, coming from you, Voldemort, or should I call you by your birth name? Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of the last daughter of the Gaunts, and a muggle father, you preach about blood purity, **when all you are is a brat seeking power, aren't you?"**

Voldemort and the Death Eaters could only watch as the bindings restraining Kazuya crumbled, and as the boy stood up, the least courageous of them took a step back at the sight of the glowing yellow eyes looking their way.

**-Break-**

Back at the stadium, with the spectators, many were reacting quite badly to what they were seeing, though the Investigation Team members were all gobsmacked.

"What in the fuck...?" said Kanji, looking visibly ill.

"Oh dear. I knew something was bound to happen, but I had not expected this." said Margaret, looking nonetheless perfectly composed, save for a very, _very_ slight frown.

Seeing the looks the other people who had a _slight_ idea of what was happening were giving her, she explained:

"Do you remember when you went to rescue Kazuya? How there was a second Shadow that tried to prevent you from reaching him?"

"Yeah, freaky thing was crazy strong." muttered Kanji.

"Yes, but what has it to do with what is happening now?" asked Chie, looking a bit perplexed.

She was not the only one, the other members of the Investigation Team were listening intently, worrying about one of their own, while a few of the wizards and witches eavesdropped.

"Well, it appears that your friend had a piece of the soul from someone else stuck in his body, and as such when it was pushed into what you call the TV World, it of course became a Shadow. Now, seeing that there was nobody to accept it, I can only suppose that having beaten it, it somehow returned from where it had come from, namely inside its' host, waiting to encounter the one it belonged to.

Now, and this is only supposition, but I believe the Shadow is somehow using Master Kazuya's body as it has no other ways of materializing itself. However, I wouldn't worry if I were you. This Shadow, despite being quite strong-" there were nervous chuckles coming from the Investigation Team, only Margaret could think of it as "quite strong","- it wouldn't be able to possess Kazuya if he hadn't allowed it to."

They were about to retort when screams brought their attention back to the screens.

**-Break-**

Despite the fact that he was letting the Shadow possess him to an extent, Kazuya was still very much in control of his body, after all a mere Shadow, one that didn't even originate from him, couldn't hope to completely control him. However, since they were not in the TV World, the Shadow couldn't manifest itself fully either, since it needed an environment where it would be able to absorb the ambient energy to sustain its' existence, energy that was lacking in the graveyard. The thing was, Kazuya didn't like the idea of forever having a piece of someone else stuck inside himself, so, in a bit of experimentation, he _willed_ the Shadow out of his body, using his magic to create a body to contain the Shadow.

Of course, the moment Shadow-Voldemort realized what was happening, it took control of the "intent" behind the creation, since it knew what it wanted the body to be like. Surprisingly, unlike the snake-like body of the recently resurrected Voldemort, this one looked perfectly human. It was, in essence, what the Dark Lord would have looked like had he not sunk into insanity and twisted his body beyond reason by the use of Dark rituals and potions.

The Shadow stood tall, with long, dark hair and a toned body that radiated power. Its' yellow eyes were glaring at the one it originated from, as well as the other Dark Wizards around them.

"**I see you're still the same immature brat than before, Me. Always wanting more power, always trying to prove that Purebloods are better than half-blood and Muggleborns, when you yourself are closer to a Muggleborn than to even a half-blood.**

**You are nothing more than a brat throwing a temper tantrum, trying to push the others around while hiding behind a fancy title, because you're scared of how others would react to you should they know your true story."**

"SILENCE! CRUCIO!" shouted the irate Dark Lord, only to have the Shadow lazily deflect the spell towards one of the robed followers surrounding them that fell backwards, screaming in pain.

"**Disappointing. You fancy yourself as being a very powerful wizard, yet you have the temper of a five-years old, and when someone shows up that defies you, your only reaction is to strike them down. And you do that because you're afraid, afraid that with time they would become a threat to you, afraid that they would prove to the world that you aren't as great as you want to believe."**

"_Avada kedavra!"_

The Shadow just lazily tilted its' head to the side, letting the lethal curse fly over its' shoulder and hit a tombstone.

"**And now you're even afraid to acknowledge your shortcomings. Truly, despite your intelligence you fail to see what could make you great."**

The Shadow then tilted its' head, and looked at Kazuya.

"**This one has friends he would die for, and fights for them. I have seen how far that took him. I have seen him defeat beings that could only be called Gods and Goddesses, standing side by side with his friends. The strength of their bonds is so outstanding that it saved an entire world.**

**I have come to realize that fighting for yourself will never make you as great as you can be when you fight for something that you consider greater than yourself. This is your last chance, Me."**

"Silence! I will not bow to some illusion! _Begone_!" bellowed Voldemort, sending a dark purple curse towards the Shadow.

Said Shadow merely grinned, before opening its' arms wide, and, much to Voldemort and his followers' shock, absorbed it. Its' form then shook violently, before exploding outwards.

"**I am a Shadow, the True Self..."**

Voldemort's Shadow, now that it had gone through its' transformation, looked like a cross between a giant toddler and one of the Mages he had seen in some old school RPGs. It was wearing robes, had the standard staff and mystical symbols sewn left and right on his clothing, however it stood at ten feet tall, and instead of the face of an old man, it was the face of a very, _very _young child, though its' expression left little doubt that it was more intelligent than a toddler, and would just love to fry/freeze/roast/etc the people present, particularly Voldemort himself.

**-Break-**

"Okay, what in Merlin's name is _that_?" asked a shocked-looking James Potter, while most of the audience was avidly watching the screens, several people still looking quite shaken.

"A Shadow." came from Yu, who, upon seeing that his words didn't seem to give James the slightest clue, explained. "A manifestation from your psyche. Specifically, it is the part of you that you never want to acknowledge, the one who feels things that you tell yourself you shouldn't feel, the part you suppress. It always holds a grudge towards the person they originate from, and try to kills them."

"You seem to have a lot of knowledge on these Shadows, young man." said Dumbledore, looking at the teen searchingly.

"That's because we all faced our own Shadows at one point or another. They tried to kill us, but after they were defeated, we acknowledged them, and gained power from it." explained Chie, whose eyes were glued to the screen.

"Anyway, isn't there a way for us to go to where Kazuya is?" asked the grey-haired leader of the Investigation Team, looking at Dumbledore.

"Unfortunately, no. We would need to know where they are, and even if we did know, I am almost certain that Voldemort has made sure that none save his followers can apparate or portkey there." said the old man, looking sorry. "I am sorry to say that Voldemort will probably want to end Harry, as he feels he is a threat to his power."

That drew a snort from Kanji, who looked unimpressed.

"Voldemort's not a threat to him, it's the Shadow we aren't sure about."

Dumbledore, along with a few other people, one of which was McGonnagal, looked slightly disapproving at the teen's assessment.

"Young man, I assure you that Voldemort is much more of a threat that you seem to think." scowled the cat Animagus.

"A threat, my ass!" growled Kanji. "Don't ya think we made sure to check how powerful the guy was? Kazuya's dad showed us some memories or the first War, the guy's certainly more powerful than most of you, but all he does is throw around spells. So long as you don't get hit, ya don't have anything to worry about."

"Well, he certainly won't be nearly as bad as Ameno-Sagiri." lightly commented Yosuke.

"Ameno-sagiri?" asked Dumbledore, who by that point was obviously trying to get out as much information as he could from the teenagers.

"Giant floating eyeball, the size of the castle. 'Wanted to drown the world in fog and make mankind devolve into mindless Shadows. It was created by Izanami, a Goddess, so I guess you could say it was some kind of God?" said the brunette, shrugging. "We weren't too happy with it, so we kicked its' ass."

For a moment, the wizards and witches could only watch in shock the group before them, before Lily Potter tentatively asked:

"Did you just say...that you defeated a God?"

Her tone was slightly disbelieving, not that it was surprising. Few people could claim to have actually _seen_ a God, and only raving mad people would say they had _defeated _one.

"Don't know if it _was_ a God, more like some kind of semi-divine being, but we _did_ face a Goddess a few weeks later, but the one to defeat her was Yu. We did deal her some damage, but I don't think we'd have defeated her if it wasn't for him." answered the teen, not looking really shocked at the idea, though inwardly he was greatly enjoying the looks they were receiving.

Many of the people who had followed the conversation turned to look at Margaret, who gave them her everlasting smile.

"What they claim is true. However, I am afraid that I cannot tell you more."

The replies of the wizards were drowned under the sound of explosions coming from the screen.

**-Break-**

Kazuya didn't like the idea of killing. Eliminating Shadows didn't count as killing as far as he was concerned, as they were after all little more than beasts who would kill him and his friends if given the chance. As such, killing them was fine, as would have been eliminating a rabid dog. Now though, he had to watch as a Shadow killed humans, and while he would like to say that he wanted nothing more than to stop it from doing so, he was in fact more willing to wait for it to finish before doing anything.

He had seen what Voldemort and his Death Eaters had done during the first war. Sure, they had killed people, but they had done so much worse. He had asked James Potter for memories, and even if it had taken him _months_, he had managed to get what he wanted. It hadn't been pretty, and quite frankly he had spent a good part of the evening of that day vomiting his lunch in the toilets. He had seen the burnt houses, the corpse laying for all to see, of those that if they were lucky, had been killed painlessly by a Killing Curse. He had seen those that hadn't been so lucky, men, women and far too often _children_, cut into pieces, ripped open by werewolves that feasted on their innards, or so horribly broken it was a wonder you could even tell they had been human. He had read reports about survivors of Death Eater raids, people being put under the Imperius curse, forced to rape their loved ones, to kill them in the most brutal ways possible.

So, knowing that the people surrounding him were the die-hard followers of Voldemort, he was less than inclined to help them as the Shadow brutally killed them, scorching them or freezing them before breaking the ice in hundreds of pieces. They were little more than animals under human clothing, and as such, he would let the Shadow kill them. He knew his decision would haunt him for a long time, but it was better than Dumbledore's policy of always giving people a second chance.

He was quite surprised to see that nobody had sent a spell his way yet, after all he was quite sure that in the panic a Death Eater would have tried killing him, if only for the principle. Then again, they were all killed in less than ten seconds, so he guessed the shock hadn't had the time to wear off yet. The only one still standing was Voldemort, though he was missing his wand arm and was bleeding quite badly.

"This isn't over yet, Potter! I will return one day! I am _immortal_!"

"**Oh, are you talking about your little trinklets?"** cooed the Shadow in a high-pitched voice. "**They won't work. They still are connected to your soul, so I can easily destroy them along with you."**

As if on cue, a giant snake tried to attack the Shadow, only for it to grasp it with its' chubby fingers, holding it like a child would hold a worm, wanting to see how hard it could pinch before it killed the lesser being.

"**Another one? You truly are mad. After mutilating your soul this much, I'm surprised you're even able to reason."**

The Shadow then seemed to _pump_ magic inside the snake, causing it to hiss and writhe in pain, while Voldemort had fallen to the ground and was screaming, the agony of the snake somehow transmitted to him.

**-Break-**

"Wait a second, this doesn't make any sense! If what you said is right, the Shadow should be feeling the pain too!" scowled Yosuke, looking at Margaret.

"I am unaware of why, exactly, the Shadow does not feel the same pain than the other pieces of soul, but I would like to point out that as a Shadow that has been rejected by the one it originated from, it is now an independent existence. Perhaps that is the reason why it is not feeling pain from its' own actions." answered the Velvet Room attendant.

**-Break-**

Kazuya watched as the mighty Dark Lord Voldemort writhed and screamed, before finally stilling, as his new body started to vanish into dust since there was no longer anything left inside to maintain it, all of the magic having been used to try and fight the destruction of his very soul.

"**Pitiful. What a wretched being he had become, I am glad I was no longer a part of him."** sneered Shadow-Voldemort, in a high-pitched voice, before turning towards Kazuya and creating a fiery explosion that he hastily dodged.

Kazuya didn't even need to think to understand why it did so. This Shadow had somehow existed inside him for a long time, if what it had said earlier was true, and as such it was probably aware that he would not let it roam freely.

"**I apologize for this, Kazuya Dojima. You were a very interesting host, however I do not wish to be exterminated before enjoying my new existence."** said the Shadow, slightly surprising him.

A Shadow _never_ apologized. Either they were mindless beasts, or they were twisted, but _honest_, and very angry versions of those they originated from. Teddie was the only exception known. However, as this was a very peculiar case, he supposed the Shadow was a little different from those he knew.

He nodded, the blue tarot card already spinning above him.

"Persona!"

_Thou art I, and I am Thou, I am Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto..._

He started when instead of his usual Persona, a stronger version of the Moon God formed from the blue light. While it did look like his former Persona, this one was clothed with a silver cloak, which had magnificent black linings forming elaborate patterns. Its' mask was now entirely black, save for a silver circle on its' forehead. The "horns", that had been present on his former persona had also almost disappeared, protruding from the mask by barely an inch.

With a roar, the two supernatural beings begun their fight.

**-Break-**

Back at Hogwarts, the people present could only gape at what they were seeing. Save for the Potters (parent AND children) and Amelia Bones, nobody knew exactly how powerful Kazuya was. Many assumed he was at least as powerful as the "scary girl in red", and even then they hadn't really gotten an extensive demonstration of how much power an Persona-user could unleash, since the one time they had seen one, all it had done was swat away a curse and create a giant fireball. True, that was impressive magic, but that hadn't really been a real fight, and as such had left the people with the idea that the members of the Investigation Team were very powerful, but not the true extent of their abilities.

The battle they were currently seeing made the worst ones from the first war look like skirmishes done by badly acting children. It took one attack, _one_ attack, to level a graveyard that had to be roughly half as big as a Quidditch pitch! And Harry Potter wasn't even winded! The teen was looking like he was actually _enjoying_ himself, and the spells he was using made Dumbledore look like a weakling! They watched as flames hot enough to melt stone were easily avoided, how lightning tore up the earth, creating giant craters, how a single ice spell (granted, nobody knew what it was) froze an area several times the size of a good-sized house.

"Merlin's beard!"

"Did you _see_ that?!"

There were collective winces as the Shadow kicked Kazuya, sending him flying before he landed harshly, clutching his stomach and his no doubt bruised, if not broken, ribs.

However, it seemed that Kazuya had decided to get _really_ serious to those that knew him, as they saw purple energy starting to gather. They knew he was probably getting ready for one of his personal skills, _Megidoladyne_, an Almighty spell that could not be blocked, and was more or less the equivalent of a nuke, seeing that the second-strongest spell in the _Megido_ type, _Megidolaon_, was probably powerful enough to blow half of Hogwarts to kingdom come, while it was only half as powerful as _Megidoladyne_.

Kazuya had used it only once, against Ameno-Sagiri, since until then he had lacked the pure power to use it, while against Izanami even such a spell wouldn't have been enough to vanquish the Goddess, that and it drained _a lot_ of Kazuya's power to use.

The crowd watched as the raven-haired teen unleashed a spell that made the entire screen go white, and the most sensitive magic-users felt a slight spike in the ambient magic, before everything went quiet again, as they waited to see if Harry Potter had vanquished the..._thing_.

For several long, agonizing minutes, the screen remained blank, until a slightly blurred image came back, showing what appeared to be the strange being that Harry Potter had called upon to fight in his stead hovering above a giant crater. Said teen seemed to be looking for a sign that his foe had survived, but there was no indication that anything in the range of whatever he had unleashed had been able to withstand the blow.

As the screens somehow responded to the crowd's general will, they zoomed on "Harry Potter's" face, and they could all make out his slightly sheepish face as he said:

"Well, this is going to be hard to explain to the neighbors."

**-Break-**

Eventually, Dumbledore sent his phoenix, Fawkes, to get Kazuya back. The second he was flamed back to Hogwarts he was drawn into a hug by a frantic-looking Naoto, who made sure to check he was fine. She knew him enough to know that he didn't care enough about himself to voice if he was wounded, therefore she would check him herself.

Once she was done, she was about to drag him to her room to give him an earful, but she was interrupted by several people, chief amongst them Dumbledore and the Minister, or as the Investigation Team had taken to call him, Fudge. No point in showing respect to a man who didn't deserve it after all.

"Potter!" barked the diminutive man, who looked rather angry," I hold you personally responsible for the deaths of several of Britain's most upstanding citizens! Aurors, arrest him!"

He was however rebuffed by an angry Naoto, who glared at him.

"So, what you are saying, _Minister_"- there was no mistaking the contempt in her voice-", is that your upstanding citizens like to gather in graveyards as witnesses to the rebirth of a known Dark Lord, a mass-murdering terrorist? And that you want to arrest someone who just happened to be there against his will because they died?"

"Now see there, young lady, I will not be spoken to like that! Besides, I have half a mind of arresting all of you"-he looked at the Investigation Team-" for using Dark Magic when it is specifically forbidden by the law!"

"Ha! Bring it!" growled Kanji, already getting his _Perun plate_ ready. His actions were mimicked by the other members of the Investigation Team.

"Now, now, let us all calm down." intervened Dumbledore, a grandfatherly smile on his face. "I am sure that young Harry would be amenable to explain how he and his friends were able to summon this beings to do their bidding."

The only reason he wasn't slugged in the face by Kazuya was the fact that quite frankly, he didn't want to cause yet _another_ fight, this time with the country's officials.

"Unfortunately, you won't be able to replicate the circumstances, and even if you did, you would die." said a serious-looking Yu.

"Oh? Why is that, Mr. Narukami?" asked the old man, eyes twinkling.

"Because unless you have a Goddess willing to create a dimension only accessible via TVs, which show you the repressed part of your psyche once you enter it, then you won't be able to replicate the circumstances?" offered a glowering Chie. She was quite clearly getting fed up with the people in front of her, not that it wasn't understandable considering their behavior.

"Yeah, and even if ya did have the same freakin' circumstances, you'd die as soon as you meet your Shadow." growled Kanji.

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Because Shadows that come from people _hate_ their originals for locking part of themselves away. And because of that, they always try to kill their originals to _become_ the original. And usually, it takes several people with their Personas to stop them. Considering that you don't have Personas yourselves, you would die." explained Yu.

"Now, now, I assure you, Mr. Narukami, that I would be fine." said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.

"Pay up." suddenly said Chie.

"Can I wait till we get home?" wailed Yosuke. "And pay in steaks?"

"Ten steaks." said the brunette, with a tone of finality. "And they better be good!"

"Excuse me, what are you talking about?" asked a confused James Potter.

"We had a bet on what the old guy suffered from. Some of us thought he was senile, others were sure he suffered from a Messiah complex, and a few of us even bet he was a megalomaniac. It seems that he leans more towards the megalomaniac than towards the two others, so Chie is collecting her winnings." explained Kazuya, grinning at the flash of anger that went through Dumbledore's eyes.

"Anyway, since Kazuya won the Tournament, can we go home now, Margaret?" asked Yu, who could probably feel that things would end badly if they stayed longer.

"Go home? But Kazuya, we're here!" cried Lily, trying to reach for her son.

It was easy to see that he was not happy with the idea of essentially abandoning them, but as he had said to Naoto during the night of the Yule Ball, they had made their decision, he had made his. James seemed to have understood that, though he too seemed to regret parting ways with his son.

"I know you are here. I know that Ivy and Sirius would love to have me around, but I already have a family, one that needs me, and I won't abandon them.

All those years ago, you made a choice. Now, it's time for me to make mine. I have seen what you have to offer, I have spent time amongst wizards and witches, and the only people I will truly miss will be you, James, Lily, Ivy and Sirius. Your society is corrupt to the core, your Minister is a fool easily manipulated by others, and the most prominent member of your society is a megalomaniac and a control-freak."

At that a spell was sent his way from Dumbledore's wand, but he swatted it away. Using magic without a wand had allowed him to learn how to use magic far more freely than most wizards, and as such, coating his hand with a small amount of magic to repel the spell was easy.

"Dumbledore, what in Merlin's name are you doing, attacking my son like that?!" bellowed James, taking out his wand.

"James, are you blind? Your son and his friends are Dark Wizards! He allowed that...Shadow, as he called it, to kill people that could be redeemed!"

"Redeemed? REDEEMED?! Those people were Death Eaters, they were too dangerous to let them live outside of Azkaban!" intervened Lily. "Do you know how it feels, to know that those that tortured and killed during the first war were never put in Azkaban? Do you know how it feels to know that somewhere, someone might be trying to destroy you and your family?! Unlike you, Dumbledore, we have _families_, families that can be used against us!"

"Lily, you are the brightest witch of your generation, surely you can understand that a few sacrifices must be made for the Greater Good?"

"Then why don't _you_ sacrifice something or someone, for a change!" shot back the Head of the Potter House. "Even during the first war, you never sacrificed anything, when we had to give up our son! A son that we'll be losing, because of _your_ actions!"

"All this is all well and good, but are you going to let us go or not?" asked Kazuya, looking rather annoyed, and a bit better now that he had been able to take a few restorative items.

"YOU WILL BE GOING NOWHERE, AURORS, ARREST THEM!"

"Fudge, are you mad?!" growled Amelia Bones, taking out her wand. "You can't order MY Aurors around as if they were your private army!"

"You too, Amelia?! Fine, Aurors, arrest her!"

Seeing that things were starting to get a bit awry, the Investigation Team took upon themselves to get into battle stances and summon their Personas. The only one who did not summon his ultimate Persona was Yu, as he had opted to summon Metatron instead, the angel looking sternly down on the frozen wizards.

There was an instant reaction, as all the people present froze, since all of them could _feel_ the power the Personas were oozing, and had by instinct frozen, like a mouse in front of a hungry cat. The nine Personas were simply floating there, however there was no mistaking the fact that they could, and should the need arise, _would_ intervene. And the people present weren't exactly eager to fight them, not if they were all as powerful as they felt.

"Good. Now that we have your attention, let us repeat this clearly: we are leaving, and no matter what your officials say or do, we will not change our decision. This is YOUR world, it is up to you to work to better it. We already did our share in our own world, but we still need to work to change mankind's wishes, and that is no easy task, so the earlier we go back, the better."

Yu then looked at Margaret who nodded, and the door to the Velvet Room appeared, each member of the Investigation Team going through it save Kazuya, who gave a last, sad smile towards his biological parents, before he too disappeared behind the blue door, that then disappeared once Margaret went through it.

**-Break-**

**Epilogue: Harry Potter universe**

While the Investigation Team's words _had_ shaken the general populace, it still took over two decades before any significant changes were made to the Wizardry society. Said changes came from those that had seen that drastic measures needed to be taken to save what little was salvageable of their society, and especially from Ivy Potter, her husband and her family.

New laws were made, while old, outdated ones were discarded, despite the protest of those that benefited from them, mostly the Purebloods, who until then had enjoyed their almost absolute power. However, even them could not stand against the crowd of Muggleborns and Half-bloods pushing for change, especially when said changes were supported by Gringotts, the Wizardry bank.

There were a few that tried to literally fight the changes, but they were unfortunately (for them at least) few and lacked the necessary resources and coordination to become a feared force like the Death Eaters had been. Many were captured after trying to harm prominent figures of the movement, and sentenced to Azkaban after fair trials, where the use of Veritaserum was mandatory. With many of the most reluctant Purebloods out of the political scene, the changes went far more smoothly than they would have had they remained in their positions of power.

Finally, in the last days of the twenty-first century, the Wizards had finally reached the same level of technological advancement than their non-magical counterparts. There were even discussions on progressively removing the Statute of Secrecy, but that is another story.

**-Break-**

**Epilogue: Persona 4 Universe**

The Investigation Team put the skills (and spells) they had learnt during their stay in a parallel universe to good use. Rise Kujikawa made her come-back, though her fans were now far more numerous than before, and she could often be seen giving interviews and pushing for changes in the rigid Japanese society. She was supported by her former classmates, but also by her boyfriend, Yu Narukami, who had become a well-respected Doctor.

Chie Satonaka had opened a small dojo where she taught many young girls and boys the art of kung-fu, and was well-liked by everyone, children and parents alike, for her fairness and dedication. Her boyfriend, Yosuke Hanamura, unlike what many had believed, didn't take his father's place as June's manager, choosing instead to work to remodel Inaba's shopping district to complement the supermarket that had caused most of the shops to run out of clientele.

Yukiko Amagi took over as the Amagi Inn's manager, however she did so only part-time, as she regularly studied to get her designer's degree. Kanji Tatsumi helped her as much as he could, while he himself worked for the fashion world. They would eventually gain a reputation of being a very effective combo and for creating magnificent clothes which happened to be quite affordable.

Teddie spent his time between the TV World, making sure no Goddess was trying to cover the world in fog again, and Junes, where he managed to become the new manager, much to most people's shock.

Naoto Shirogane became a worldwide-known detective, and the few who _ever_ dared question her competences because of her gender were reminded, painfully, that being a woman did not make her in any way, less competent than her male counterparts. Especially considering that any case she took usually ended up solved in less than a few months with a lot of evidence pointing towards the culprits, even if they happened to be well-respected political figures.

As for Kazuya Dojima, he successfully became known as the Detective Prince's shadow, always helping her to solve the case but never trying to stand in the spotlight, which made the media all the more interested in him. Of course, the few interviews that were given were strictly monitored, as they didn't want anything about their unusual abilities to slip, nor did they want to endanger Nanako or their friends by mentioning them openly.

The two of them moved in together in a traditional Japanese house in the countryside, and they always took a few weeks each year to relax together there, enjoying the silence of the countryside. Eventually, they would marry and have two children, a girl and a boy, who both inherited their father's eyes, much to their mother's delight, as well as his most esoteric abilities. Eventually, the Shirogane family would strive under Kazuya and Naoto's watchful eyes and tender care, becoming a family known for its' members incorruptibility, sense of duty, and morals.

* * *

**So, not sure if you liked or not, but well, please review, constructive criticism is welcome (no flames please).  
**


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